Malekula Island
1940’s
Height: 6 1/2” Width: 12 in (16.51 x 30.48 cm)
Provenance: Nicolai Michoutouchkine, Noumea, New Caledonia
Wayne Heathcoate, London
This beautiful used ceremonial head was made from a vegetable fibre paste that goes hard after mixing it with spider webs and decorated with boar tusks and ochre painting. In SW Malekula Island, these puppet heads are known as “Temes Nevimbur”. They are used during important ceremonies by members of a secret society, such as “Nevimbur”. The puppet heads are seen from behind the community dancing ground fence (a sacred area). Many of these ceremonies celebrate the attainment of higher status within the secret societies known as “grade taking ” or taking of a higher title. Merit rather than birth determines the grade or rank of an individual within these societies. A man with strong determination can be elevated over a lifetime to the status of a living deity. Pigs are crucial to obtaining the higher status for the highest levels of the secret society; dozens of full-circle tusked pigs are needed to be sacrificially killed on a single occasion to take the next level or grade within the society.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured and packed by hand.
Malekula Island
1940’s
Height: 6 1/2” Width: 12 in (16.51 x 30.48 cm)
Provenance: Nicolai Michoutouchkine, Noumea, New Caledonia
Wayne Heathcoate, London
This beautiful used ceremonial head was made from a vegetable fibre paste that goes hard after mixing it with spider webs and decorated with boar tusks and ochre painting. In SW Malekula Island, these puppet heads are known as “Temes Nevimbur”. They are used during important ceremonies by members of a secret society, such as “Nevimbur”. The puppet heads are seen from behind the community dancing ground fence (a sacred area). Many of these ceremonies celebrate the attainment of higher status within the secret societies known as “grade taking ” or taking of a higher title. Merit rather than birth determines the grade or rank of an individual within these societies. A man with strong determination can be elevated over a lifetime to the status of a living deity. Pigs are crucial to obtaining the higher status for the highest levels of the secret society; dozens of full-circle tusked pigs are needed to be sacrificially killed on a single occasion to take the next level or grade within the society.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured and packed by hand.
