ART 109 OCEANIA

• Asmat
• carved pole to serve as vessel for wandering spirit
• S-shapes -- ancestors, curved tail of cuscus, boar's tusk
• beak shapes -- birds who eat fruit --> head hunting
• spirit canoe  -- for proper spirit burial "uramon"
• praying mantis --> head hunting

• Asmat
• men, costumed, dancing thru the night, at dawn get "attacked" and symbolically killed.  Spirits of dead ancestors driven to ancestral homeland

• Asmat
• "uramon"
• initiation rite... young boys secluded for months, then must crawl over canoe .... boy --> man ---- scarification

• Asmat
• "jamasj"
• psychological power embedded within
• named after ancestors - bestows holder with more power
• owner more associated with shield than carver
• at death shield was broken and buried w/ owner
• (except in north, passed down to son)

• Myth of Fumeripits
• Fumeripits, the creator, drowns in river
• bird try to revive, no luck, try medicine, no luck, tries again
• Fumeripits awakes, "I am Fumeripits"
• carves man and woman from wood
• beats drum to bring to life
• aligator broken up, becomes all else

• 1. pledge to avenge death
• 2. provide spiritual vessel
• headhunting takes life of villager
• elders meet to put spitir to rest
• men hunt mangrove tree, kill and skin it
• bring tree back to village, women yell at tree in victory
• women promise sexual favors for success
• men in special workroom -- poles lined up an displayed (equals promise to avenge death)
• boasting and dancing of mock battle
• left to decompose with sago plants

• melanesia -- black islands, incl Papua New Guinea
• micronesia -- northern
• polynesia -- Hawaii and south, Easter Island, New Zealand

• 1. vehicle for male prestige
• 2. appropriation of the other group's life energy
• 3. moment in the cycle of creative and destructive exchange

• 1. to secure dominance
• 2. siezing land and slaves
• 3. vengence
• 4. demand for sacrificial victims

• Abelam, "korambo"
• 1. clubhouse for clans in village
• 2. place of initiation of male youth
• 3. storage place for sacred items

• cultural center, center of of spiritual and political power
• where spirits reside & elders meet
• front of house decorated; top-witch, mid-male spirits, bot-copulation

• 1. political life
• 2. moral values
• 3. rules of behavior/ conduct
• 4. ritual
• 5. myth

grower of largest yam not allowed to eat it, "authorship"

5th century AD, Chief Hotu Matu'a, from Marquesas Is.

• ceremonial centers
• made in honor of fallen chief
• stand guard over the living

• 1. ahu/moai phase --> 1000-1500AD
• 2. decadent phase --> 1500-1722
• 3. Dutch explorers --> 1722
• 4. Chilean citizenship --> 1966

• bird:
• givers of omens
• messengers
• guides
• vehicles of spirits of gods and dead
• egg: cosmic fertility and power

• solution to redistribution of resorces
• leave from Mata Ngarau, run down cliff w/ reed floaters, swim to Motu Nui islet, find Sooty tern egg (send by gods), return to E.I., winner ruler for one year

• spiritual power, resides in head "sacred power"
• chiefs, top officials, nobility
• increased by heroic deeds and initiations
• art:  based on quality of mana held; materials, artist processes, used/worn by someone w/ mana

• Ariki:  aristocracy of ranked hereditary chiefs
• Hurumanu: common people
• Kio:  lower ranking group

"pukao"

E.I. highest official in Miru; greatest mana power

E.I. new moai figure carved "with ribs" during 16th century/decadent phase

Katherine Routledge, British archaeologist, departed for island in 1913; first to study island; from March 1914 to August 1915

E.I. (Rapa Nui) god who created man

Irian Jaya

birdman winner title

Rapa Nui sacred platform