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Details
- Other Title
- Female stone (rubbed with male stone to give strength to men before a fight)
- Place where the work was made
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Mount Elimbari
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Simbu (Chimbu) Province
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Papua New Guinea
- Cultural origin
- Chuave people
- Dates
- early 20th century
collected 1966 - Media category
- Ceremonial object
- Materials used
- stone, black, blue-grey and yellow ochre pigments
- Dimensions
- 21.0 x 17.5 x 4.5 cm
- Credit
- Gift of Stan Moriarty 1978
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 272.1978
- Copyright
- © Chuave people, under the endorsement of the Pacific Islands Museums Association's (PIMA) Code of Ethics
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About
Cults associated with sacred stones were once prevalent throughout the highlands. Sacred stones included oddly shaped river rocks or unearthed objects created by ancient highlands cultures, such as mortars, pestles, club heads and zoomorphic figurines. Ancestral and other spirits resided in these earthly forms, establishing a direct link with the spiritual world. The Enga people believed sacred stones were handed down from the 'sky people' who came to earth and created mankind; others thought they were the petrified bones of the ancestors. Stored in ritual houses or buried at sacred sites, stones were 'fed' the blood or fat of pigs on ritual occasions.
Archaeologists believe prehistoric stone mortars were used to grind seeds and nuts for nourishment, and pigments for ceremonies.
[Exhibition text for 'Plumes and pearlshells: art of the New Guinea highlands', AGNSW, 2014]
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Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
Plumes and pearlshells: art of the New Guinea highlands, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 30 May 2014–10 Aug 2014
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Bibliography
Referenced in 2 publications
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Tony Tuckson, Aboriginal and Melanesian art, Sydney, 1973, 53. cat.no. H110 [B: female stone]; "Stones, male and female stones rubbed together before men go to fight gives them strength".
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Natalie Wilson (Editor), Plumes and pearlshells: art of the New Guinea highlands, Sydney, 2014, 70 (colour illus.), 159. cat.no. 13
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