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Horizontal suspension hook, Radja [overleaf], C-14 dating: 1640–1890 (95.4% probability)
Wood, pigment, sago leaf fiber skirt, rattan, human skull overmodeled with clay mixed with burnt lime and oil from tree bark (or with the juice of breadfruit and wax), pigment and mother-of-pearl eyes and nose ornaments, wig of human hair, cassowary feathers, cowrie and Nassa shell
80 x 132 x 20 cm (31 1/2 x 51 15/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
The Marcia and John Friede Collection, a Promised Gift to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco L05.1.68

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: "Probably collected by German traders in the 1880s or on the von Schleinitz Expedition in 1886, after which it entered the Königlichen Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin. Arthur Speyer Collection, Eltville, Germany; Ralph Nash Collection, London." (Catalog #150, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, pp. 105-106.) EXHIBITIONS: 1971-92 - Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum für Völkerkunde, Cologne, 1971-72, "Schwarze lnseln der Südsee." PUBLICATIONS: 2005 - "This object consists of four separate elements: a wooden structure representing a woman's body with outstretched legs, terminating in two bird heads, with loops probably representing a snake below; an overmodeled (probably male) skull; a wig; and elaborate nose ornaments. All of these were collected and preserved together, a remarkable achievement in the early colonial period. Horizontal-shaped suspension hooks have been interpreted as soul canoes ('soul' or 'soul ships') traveling to the hereafter ('Land of the dead' or 'Land of the spirits') (Reche, 1913: 395; Wirz, 1959: 46). The projecting points or spikes are not used for the placement of skulls, as some have suggested, but for the attachment of gifts (apparently in string bags) during 'marriage rituals taking place at the final stage of initiation after a head-hunting expedition' (Le Fur, 1999:202). Douglas Newton discussed the only other comparable figure, which is in the Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, as follows (Newton, 1979: 313, figs. 22-23): 'The cult of the ancestral skull involved its incorporation in a number of elaborate and spectacular modes, from the erection of a form of highly decorated puppets [see pl. 162] for funerary rites to the display of carvings with mythological themes. The central figure in this [Linden-Museum] example, flanked as it is with snakes depicted on its hook-bearing branches, is porbably related to the myth of a female ancestor who, with her animal children, created the Sepik River itself.' The Linden-Museum figure was collected in 1909 by Captain Haug on the Siar on the Hamburg South Seas Expedition (Le Fur, 1999: 202-3, fig. 58). Both ours and the Linden-Museum figure are freestanding sculptural equivalents of the figure of a woman traditionally carved on the central house post, warangka, of the men's ceremonial house, ngaigo or haus tambaran (Melanesian Pidgin). See Greub, 1985: 182. The initiated men passed through the legs of a woman to enter their inner sanctum. The men's house, which represents the womb, is itself female, but women could not enter or even approach it. The ancestral woman to which Newton refers is Shotkaman-Agwi, the wife of Betman-Gambi (see below). Traditionally she was said to have lived in the Blackwater hills and is sometimes called Gun'hamal in the middle Sepik. She gave birth to three animal children-a pair of Gandju birds and a reptile, represented either as a crocodile or a snake. The reptile is said to have slithered to the sea, creating the sinous course of the Sepik River. At the time the myths may have originate, the Sepik actually did not run to the sea. It emptied into a large inland lake, traditionally called Mebenbit, which existed in the lower Sepik valley for 7,000 years, until roughly 1,000 years ago (Specht, 1988: 36-39). The Gandju birds, which are ubiquitous on carvings in the middle Sepik, are both tricksters and the transmitters of culture. As such, they equate to a frequently encountered figure in traditional cultures, Eshu in the Yoruba of Nigeria, coyote in the Southwest, and raven in the Pacific Northwest. The snake/crocodile also plays a role in the resurrection myth relating to Betman-Gambi. See pl. 166. For a fuller commentary on these spirit persons and their representation in middle Sepike art, see della Santa, 1955: 81, which is a French translation of the original study by Paul Wirz. Also see Rosenthal, 1968: 50-52. Another Iatmul cult hook, also probably portraying Shotkaman-Agwui, is published in Kaufmann, 1992, fig. 594. It was collected in Yentchanmangua village in 1914 and is now in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia. However, its head is wood, not an overmodeled skull." (Catalog #150, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, pp. 105-106.) 1972 - Stöhr, 1972, pl. ii.

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overleaf Radja hook suspension Horizontal Francisco San Museums Arts Fine Gift Promised 106 105 pp 2 Volume 2005 Friede John Marcia Jolika Masterpieces Art 150 Catalog London Nash Ralph Germany Eltville Speyer Arthur Berlin V*lkerkunde fŸr Museum K*niglichen entered which 1886 Expedition Schleinitz von 1880s traders German by collected people Iatmul Oceania Province Sepik East Guinea New Papua Melanesia Object Ritual shell Nassa cowrie feathers cassowary hair wig ornaments nose eyes pearl mother wax breadfruit juice bark tree oil lime burnt mixed clay overmodeled skull human rattan skirt fiber leaf sago pigment Wood 0709200406050374 A360983 L05.1.68 AOA