Rare Older Abelam Plaited Ceremonial Yam Baba Mask East Sepik Papua New Guinea

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Rare Older Abelam Plaited Ceremonial Yam Baba Mask East Sepik Papua New Guinea :
$299.99

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on health and beautyaids, direct, at wholesale prices, free shipping available also.Abelam Plaited Ceremonial Baba Mask 11\"x6\"x6\" very rare and very old. Perfect conditionEast Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea

These finely handwoven masks called Babaare ancestral spirit images used to decorate, consecrate, and celebrate theancestors at the elaborate Abelam yam harvest festivals & were once worn bya yam in such a ceremony, displayed as faces on the tallest exchange pieces duringthe yam harvest, they were ceremonially treated as human beings symbolizing thepresence of the spirit world. This is a fine older example collected 30 yearsago, very tightly woven and in excellent condition, with blackened smoky patinaon the inside which was re-used for many years. Some remnant of pigmentsdecorations.

A note on the yam exchangeceremonies: Abelam ritual yams are planted in deep, narrow pits, carefullytended and regularly fertilized with magic. The largest grow up to 240cm / 8feet or more. Each man has a permanent yam exchange partner and tries to outdohim, since the longer the yam, the greater the spiritual power of ones ancestors.On the ritual presentation day, the yams are laid on trestles under a roofedarea and decorated with masks, feathers, leaves, etc. The neighboring villageusually arrives very aggressively and there is a fair amount of latent violencebefore the ceremony resolves into a feast hosted by the yam growing village.

The Abelam people reside in the foothills ofthe Prince Alexander Mountains, in theMaprik/Wosera area,just north of the Sepik River.They cultivate gardens of yams (mami in tok pisin) as their main staple crop.The yams can be stored for up to six months. They also grow beans, taro,bananas, Tobacco, maize and sweet potatoes, as well as small cash crops ofcoffee, rubber and cocoa.

Rituals associated with yams form the basis of the spiritual lifeof the Abelam. Themen\'s cults in this area revolve around it and only the initiated men can growthem. A man\'s status is judged by his ability to grow long yams (dioscoreaalata). Ceremonial yams grow up to 9-12 feet (3-4 meters) long. During the 5month growing season, a man spends all of his time in the garden tending hisbest yams. The best of these yams become the focus of the harvest festival,during which ancestral spirits are believed to temporarily inhabit the yams.The men observe food and sexual taboos and perform specific rituals toencourage the yams. If a yam tuber grows straight, it is considered to be male;if it has protuberances, it is considered to be female.

Duringthe elaborate harvest festival, the yams are named after ancestral spirits(nggwal) & decorated with wooden masks, plaques or often with woven basketsor fans commonly made of rattan painted with natural pigments,& adornedwith feathers, flowers, fruit & leaves until they resemble men at the laststage of initiation & are put on display in the village. In addition, shell money, feathersincluding cassowary & the Lesser Bird of Paradise, bright flowers such asthe red hibiscus, small bright orange or green decorative fruits (mban), colorful leaveslike the croton and ritual paint are added to make the display morepowerful. Basket yam masks are wovenonly by the men. They take a large grass and using their teeth, strip out thecenter. The pliable outer edges are used as weft to cover the foundation coilsof the mask. Very complex 3-dimensional and filigreed shapes are formed. Mostmasks are painted with local clay pigments and natural dyes, although tradestore enamel or acrylic paints, especially red, are occasionally used. Theseyam \'men\' are believed to be present as living beings capable of hearing andseeing.

These wonderful masksare often overlooked by US collectors but are highly regarded by Europeancollectors. Good yam masks are genuine, traditional, ceremonial masks and awonderful addition to any collection of rare and unique artifacts.

At planting or at harvest time, some of the villages spinceremonial tops carved from coconut shells. The concave surface is decoratedwith stylized flower and other geometric designs. Sometimes these are coloredwith clay pigments or chalk. We were told in one village that tops are spun byopposing clans across a playing field in the plaza. Each side tries to knockoff the other\'s tops while still keeping their own spinning. The side whosetops spin the farthest will have the longest vines and the biggest yams atharvest. When not in use, the short sticks are removed and the tops strungtogether on kanda vine and hung up in the eaves of the house.

Aman does not keep his own long yams, but exchanges them with his traditionaltrading partner from another village. Whoever has the largest yams isconsidered to have the most power. The exchange creates ties between villagesand clans and also shares the best breeding stock throughout the area.Sometimes other exchanges, displays of wealth such as shell money rings tied tothe front of the Haus Tambaran, and settlement of debts takes place. The menconduct their secret ceremonies out of sight of the women and uninitiated children.Big Men wear valuable bilas: shell and pig tusk jewelry, karuts (woven figures worn as mouth pieces in battle ordance) and cassowary bone knives in their armbands.

TheAbelam say that their yams were given to them by Wapikan, along with rules forliving properly. As long as they followed this path, the yams grew easily.However, they drifted away from Wapikan\'s ideals and he killed himself indespair. After that, the yams only grew with very hard work.

Thegrowing of yams and the year-long rituals associated with them form a maincenter of Abelam life. Yams are the most important food, so many differentnames are used to describe the varieties and stages of growing them, just asthe ocean-going Polynesians have many terms to describe the sea. At the harvestyam linings, the decorated long yams (dioscorea alata) represent the nggwal spirits who are affiliated with the ancestors ofthe Abelam.

Harvestyam linings are a high point of ceremonial display and exchange. During the yamlining, wooden yam masks and balsa wood heads are used, along with basket yammasks, to create the nggwal spirits of the long yams. Carved wooden faces areoften backed with a fan. The fans may be woven basket ones, or made of closelywoven and clipped cassowary feathers or wooden ones called deoo that are carvedfrom lightweight balsa. The fans are also mounted on cane frameworks and wornby dancers as headdresses during the men\'s initiation ceremonies.
Common colors are reds, yellows and whites from clay ochres and black fromcharcoal and soot. Several intense reds come from plants, as does a blue.Colors have magical powers; for example, white is used to make the long yamsgrow.

Allinitiated men are expected to carve or weave with the more experienced mensupervising the work, or a man may pay a better carver to carve for him. Thebest carvers are recognized as being more spiritually powerful. Although Abelamart follows traditional ideals, each man\'s pieces may be unique and are hiscreation and interpretation of Abelam spiritual power. Carvings are seen astemporary and are often discarded after use, as the carvers know they canalways create more. Some carvings are considered too powerful to keep after theceremony is over and are carried away a safe distance from the village and leftin the jungle.

At the harvest yamfestival, the best yams are prominently displayed in the plaza in front of theHaus Tambaran. The biggest ones are tied horizontally on long poles and leanedin rows along each side of the display area. There may be hundreds of otheryams of all sizes presented in decorated mounds for viewing and distribution.

During the yam lining, which is a major socialand ceremonial occasion, all the trading partners come in from their villagesto the host village. The prize winning decorated yam is eaten in the ritual toensure the fertility and well being of the next season\'s plantings. The villagewomen prepare huge quantities of food for everyone. Yams are rather bland byWestern tastes, but cooked in coconut milk with greens, they are nice. Pigs arekilled and baked in pits with the number and size being shown off.

Masks, statues and carvings of Papua New Guinea’scultures serve a variety of spiritual, cultural and decorative purposes. Mostof the carvings found in PNG are from the Sepik region, where the productionand use of masks, among other things, is an important part of traditionalculture. Ancestral masks, for example, represent deceased clan ancestors,totemic creatures that assist the tribe by interceding on a high plane toprovide food, prevent and cure illness, while spirit masks embody tribalspirits who inhabit the surrounding jungle, & may come to the help of thetribe to counterattack sorcery spells meant to arm them.

Ancestors assist one\'s life by interceding on a highplane to provide food, prevent and cure illness, acquire stature, and countersorcery attempted via the ancestor spirit plane. These are examples ofbeautiful rare original standing masks of Ancestral figures from Papua NewGuinea (above and next page): hand-carved wood adorned with rattan basketry,cassowary feathers and hand-painted with clay-based colors, shell eyes &clan animal at the top.

Ifa village or clan has a lot of bad luck, thewhole group may change their names and buy the rights to use masks from anotherclan in a different village in an attempt to fool the bad spirits or sorcerers.The resulting masks usually display characteristics of both groups. Each Sepik Rivervillage otherwise is independent and has a distinctive style. Notwo masks can ever be exactly the same either. Each is crafted by a differentartist, representing a different ancestor or spirit, and is therefore unique. (Asa matter of fact, copying is forofferden and sentenced by local law unless thereis a formal agreement between the parties involved.)

The men carve masks fromindigenous wood. Paint is made from earth pigments andcharcoal. Masks can be decorated with shells, pig tusks, and Cassowary feathers. Few masks are worn directly over the face,which explains why many lack holes for eyes. They may be part of a largecone-shaped wicker framework for a dance costume called a tumbuan. Other masksare made only for display in the men\'s Haus to attract powerful and usefulspirits. Masks often refer to a clan totem such as crocodile or eagle usuallyrepresented carved on the forehead. New masks may appear when a man dreams a spiritand carves a mask to represent it.