Ancestral Figure
Unknown Artist
1800s
Medium
painted wood with fiber and tapa cloth
Dimensions
105.4 × 12.2 × 12.8 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Oceania
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Munro
Accession Number
1971.150
About this artwork
In the Sepik River region, village social and ceremonial life centers on the men's house. Ritual objects such as slit gongs, orators' stools, and flutes are stored there; the most sacred objects are kept hidden from women and children. Carved wooden figures, which probably represent ancestors, were preserved in the men's houses.