New Guinea, Papuan Gulf Drum
The drum plays an important part in the cultural life of the people of the Papuan Gulf. These drums were kept in the ceremonial house as sacred objects not to be seen by the uninitiated. This house is the social, religious, ceremonial and artistic centre of a village.
Essential parts of certain ceremonies, often involving the initiation of young men are done there. Thus the ceremonial house serves as a meeting place between the human world and the ancestor or spirit world. The Papuan drums have a distinctive shaped end in the form of an open mouth. The area around the mouth is decorated with relief carving which generally takes the form of stylised faces.
Its not hard to image that the drums represent spiritual beings who let themselves be heard through these mouths when the drum is beaten. The skin on the drum is lizard, which is continually tuned with small lumps of beeswax placed This is one of a pair of drums that come from the Kerewa people collected in the 1940s
$1300 AUD
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