Papua New Guinea Abelam Large Wood Ancestor Figure

East Sepik Province, Mapik Papua New Guinea,

A finely carved and ochre painted ancestor figure from the Abelam people, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea.  The Abelam are a people that live in the Sepik river region of Papua New Guinea and there are about 40,000 Abelam language speakers that live on the plains and foothills on the north side of the middle Sepik River.

The Abelam have a complex ceremonial life organized around yam cultivation and spirits. The most important of these spirits is Ngwallndu, an ancestor like being whose power determines the success of all human endeavours. This figure of Ngwallndu was used in the initiation of young men. The Korumbo or Spirit House is where most of the Abelam ceremonies are conducted including the initiation of young men into various aspects of the cult & the Abelam cosmology.

Size: 75 inches (190.5cm) H. + custom base.

Provenance:  Collection of Jerry Zimler (1954-1989) a clinical psychologist, New York, NY, whose  practice was working mainly with disturbed children.