Carved figure of spirit (malanggatsak), made for malagan festival to commemorate the dead

Add to album

This carving shows a stylised human-like figure, holding a crayfish and standing on a bird. It represents the spirit of a dead person, or the ancestors in general or another kind of spirit, and was made for display during a funerary malagan ceremony.

This carving, designed to stand upright on its projecting base, shows a human-like figure with staring eyes, bent legs and a tall, V-shaped headdress. Its arms grasp the claws of a crayfish, whose body is merged with a bird's. The bird feeds another.

Malagan ceremonies took several days, cost a lot to organise, and often took place several years after an important person died. They commemorated that person and any others who had died, and sent off their spirits.

Record details

To search on related items, click any underlined text below.

• Online ID: 000-180-000-750-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland Part 2
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  A.1906.607
• Date: 1906
  
• Material: Figure
  
• Dimensions: 41.00" H
  
• What: Figure
  
• Subject: Miscellaneous
  
• Who:
• Where: Melanesia, New Ireland
  
• Event:
• Description: Image, in carved and painted wood, of an anthropomorph with a head dress and opercula eyes holding a crayfish, and also with a bird head and a crustacean: Melanesian, New Ireland
  
• References:
  • Lincoln, L (ed). Assemblage of Spirits. New York: George Braziller, 1987. 
  • Sheridan, J A (ed). Heaven and Hell and Other Worlds of the Dead. Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland, 2000. 
• Translations:
• Related Records: