Spirit board "gope" · Papua New Guinea - Gulf · ID: 3049411
Italian Collection
Description
wood, pigments,
Spirit boards were kept in the mens houses, where each family clan has its own niche.
The painting of the carved boards with red ochre confered “heat”, menace, or dangerous power “imunu” on these objects, and the addition of skulls, and age itself, increased “imunu”.
It was told that spirits of such boards would go into battle with men who whorshipped it - both protecting them and causing confusion amongst the enemy. Furtheron the magical powers still had relevance to successful hunting.
The object Spirit board “gope” with the object ID 3049411 was last part of the auction 99th Auction at November 12, 2022 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 189 achieved a sales price of EUR 3,000.
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