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| A rare iniet, "secret society", figure, or pokopoko ingiat, in the form of a seated humanoid. The head and body are columnar and square sectioned, while the legs are of a freer semi-circular section. The face is reminiscent of those of the duk-duk masks with wide circular eyes and a large grinning mouth. The ears are placed on the lateral planes of the head. The body is decorated on the front and lateral panels with a deeply engraved chevron motif and the toes are indicated. The iniet are a so-called "secret society" of initiated men who are responsible for the iniet cult. This religious belief is not well documented, however, small stone carvings representing humans and animals are known to be used in initiation rites. It is thought that each iniet figure belongs to a specific member of the cult. The relationship between two members of the cult would seem to be governed by the parental ties between the stone figures they each own. The iniet cult was severely repressed by the early German colonial rule and the Christian missionaries, which pushed the cult underground where it disappeared from the eyes of the few European observers present in New Britain at that time. The stone figures were either found in caves where they had been deposited by cult members or more rarely in small huts hidden in sacred enclosures. They have also been found underground in what are possibly ceremonial burials or safe-keeps where they would remain hidden from the Germans. The Gunantuna (or Tolai) people are originally from New Ireland where a funerary cult known as kulap exists which is represented by carved chalk, humaoïd figures.
Gunantuna (Tolai) People, possibly from the Paparatava site near Vunakokor, Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago, P.N.G., Melanesia. Soft, grey/white, granular limestone (chalk) with red, white and black pigment. Old filler and minor restauration to the underside of the legs as compared with the original image from 1913. 33,1 x 7,5 x 16,5 cm. XIX/XXth century. |
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Probably collected by Richard Thurnwald during the Deutsche Marine Expedition in 1907 at the Paparatava site near Vunakokor Formerly in a private German collection. Purchased from Alfred Klinkmüller, Berlin in 1969. Formerly in the collection of the Count d'Arschot, Bruxelles ( inv. N°A. Mel.: 54/69). The rear of the figure shows an area that has scraped or rubbed which still retains minute traces of red paint and varnish. This area is the same spot as the black rectangle on the piece illustrated in Thurnwald which appears to show that the inventory number was removed. Under ultraviolet light more traces of the number appear and further identification of the number is on-going. |
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Ill. : Thurnwald, Richard : Ethno-psychologische Studien an Südseevölkern auf dem Bismarck-Archipel und den Salomo-Inseln. J.A. Barth, Leipzig, 1913 plate XVIII, fig. 186b.
See: Fig. 94, page 60 in Koch (1982) for a seated figure (VI 37 836, Berlin) collected by Thurnwald in 1907 and Fig. 222, page 89 for a figure (VI 27 532, Berlin) with similar facial features and especially a remarkably similar body decor composed of chevron motifs.
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