Spirit board "kwoi" ·  Papua New Guinea - Gulf, Purari Delta · ID: 3053610

Description

wood, pigments,

According to traditional accounts, these spirit boards were used during boys’ initiation ceremonies. The initiates are said to have carried the boards suspended from cords threaded through the lateral perforations and stretched between them. The nocturnal processions were given a particularly striking appearance by the light of torches.

Comparing literature

Hamson, Michael, Red Eye of the Sun, Los Angeles 2010, p. 34