Male ancestor figure "kawe"

Description

wood, lime, red ochre, black pigment, missing parts, base

These figures usually represent recently deceased individuals, whose names they also bear.

They served to make the invisible presence of deceased tangible for their bereaved relatives and to remind the community that their deaths must be avenged. In a superordinate sense, they also served as a link to the ancestral or founding ancestors of a far past.

In the past, they were apparently made in connection with the great cult festival on the occasion of the erection of a new men’s house, where they were placed leaning against the wall or tied to a pole scaffold and had the same function as the ancestor posts and “bis” poles.

When their ritual purpose was fulfilled, i.e. when the blood revenge was carried out, they were broken and the fragments brought to the sago-grounds to allow their power to transfer into the sago. While themselves rotting away the figures gave nourishment to the sago-palms.