Dutch explorers name the second largest island in the world New Guinea, because it reminded them of Guinea in Africa. They named it Ilha dos Papuas, Island of the Fuzzy-Hairs. In New Guinea men say that the physical beauty displayed in their dances is linked with both economic and spiritual factors. The feathers and other decorations are a form of wealth, and therefore marks of material success both for the individual wearing them and for the kinsmen from whom he has borrowed some of the ornaments. Furthermore, a good appearance is likely to magically help a man increase his available supply of ornaments, wealth objects, and women, who are a special form of wealth.

     Finally, a beautiful appearance is impossible without the assistance of ancestral spirits, who help a man hunt birds for decorative plumage. The ancestors also help make the plumage look bright, and to assure this aid, the men observe various religious customs intended to secure ancestral blessings. If these rituals are carried out properly, the spirits will congregate in  a man’s hair and will help him achieve his desired goals. Many peoples believe that the head is the center of energy, with special power ascribed to the hair. The highlands people of New Guinea see a man’s hair as the focus of his strength. The ghosts of his ancestors live in his hair, and a luxuriant coiffure is evidence of their support. To enhance this strength, they augment their own hair with wigs, combs, and other ornaments.

1a., 1b. (may show other images of men’s body art –

1a. “Man as Art,” photo by Malcolm Kirk)

1b. Huli warriors and a young Asaro mudman during a festival in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. “Men are the objects of beauty. To be masculine is to be well made – up” Women, though, court danger if they are too attractive. “Men are already mortally afraid of the power of women’s biology”.

The complicated ceremonial practices of New Guinea people require musical accompaniment for both public and secret rituals. Drums and other percussion instruments, as well as whistles and flutes are used for this purpose.

This board carved with stone tools and perforated, at first seems to be a fanciful, random design, difficult to interpret. It was originally painted ocher and white, but the color has almost completely disappeared from the front, the uppermost part of which is culminated by a large face in low relief. Enormous eyes surrounded by white and dark of the neck is a small pig and in the spaces between the thin body and the edges of the slab, four large birds (perhaps) eagles are symmetrically arranged – two facing up and two down.

The female figure depicted here is probably the aquatic Kamboragea. However some scholars have recognized the figure as a depiction of the tree of life. Others have seen it as an archetypal portrayal of a cannibal, endowed with supernatural powers, although incorporating natural forms. If this last interpretation is correct, the board would have been used as a rack for human trophy skulls.

    Skull shrines were kept in the men’s ceremonial house. Heads are taken on a variety of occasions, such as initiations or the completion of a new house. Sometimes as many as fifty or sixty skulls would be heaped up in front of a single shrine. Each shrine was carved to represent a particular ancestor.