Ifugao, Northern Luzon, Philippines
20th century, collected in the 1950s
Wood, shell, beads, metal
Height 17 3/4" (45 cm)
Provenance: Collected in situ in the 1950s by the owner of the Metamora Museum of Oddities, Metamora, Indiana; on display approximately 70 years
Bulul figures are carved ancestral presences associated with rice cultivation among the Ifugao people of the Cordillera region of Northern Luzon, placed in granaries to protect the rice harvest and channel the power of ancestral spirits toward agricultural fertility. The figures are understood as inhabited by the spirits of ancestors who act as guardians of the stored grain, and their ritual efficacy was maintained through offerings and ceremonial attention over generations. The shell, bead, and metal elements on this figure add visual emphasis while keeping it closely connected to the ritual and agricultural context in which bulul were used.
The figure is carved in the highly stylized manner characteristic of Ifugao ancestral sculpture, with a compact vertical form, clearly defined head, and reduced body that concentrate the figure's presence into an abstracted but unmistakable human form. The surface has developed an untouched patina consistent with long display and handling, with no visible restoration or intervention. The in situ collection in the 1950s places the figure's removal from its community of origin within a documented early period, before the frameworks governing the export of cultural heritage material from the Philippines were established.
The Metamora Museum of Oddities provenance provides an unusual but well documented institutional holding history, with the figure on display for approximately 70 years before entering the current holding. Museums of curiosities and natural history collections assembled in mid-20th century America constitute a recognized category of early institutional provenance for objects of this type. The combination of in situ collection documentation, extended museum display history, and the figure's intact condition and adornments gives this bulul a clear and traceable ownership record.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Ifugao, Northern Luzon, Philippines
20th century, collected in the 1950s
Wood, shell, beads, metal
Height 17 3/4" (45 cm)
Provenance: Collected in situ in the 1950s by the owner of the Metamora Museum of Oddities, Metamora, Indiana; on display approximately 70 years
Bulul figures are carved ancestral presences associated with rice cultivation among the Ifugao people of the Cordillera region of Northern Luzon, placed in granaries to protect the rice harvest and channel the power of ancestral spirits toward agricultural fertility. The figures are understood as inhabited by the spirits of ancestors who act as guardians of the stored grain, and their ritual efficacy was maintained through offerings and ceremonial attention over generations. The shell, bead, and metal elements on this figure add visual emphasis while keeping it closely connected to the ritual and agricultural context in which bulul were used.
The figure is carved in the highly stylized manner characteristic of Ifugao ancestral sculpture, with a compact vertical form, clearly defined head, and reduced body that concentrate the figure's presence into an abstracted but unmistakable human form. The surface has developed an untouched patina consistent with long display and handling, with no visible restoration or intervention. The in situ collection in the 1950s places the figure's removal from its community of origin within a documented early period, before the frameworks governing the export of cultural heritage material from the Philippines were established.
The Metamora Museum of Oddities provenance provides an unusual but well documented institutional holding history, with the figure on display for approximately 70 years before entering the current holding. Museums of curiosities and natural history collections assembled in mid-20th century America constitute a recognized category of early institutional provenance for objects of this type. The combination of in situ collection documentation, extended museum display history, and the figure's intact condition and adornments gives this bulul a clear and traceable ownership record.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
