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Shield, Reipi , early 20th century
Wood, pigment, fiber, wood
123 x 59 x 21 cm (48 7/16 x 23 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.)
Gift of Marcia and John Friede in honor of Diane B. Wilsey and Harry S. Parker III 2007.44.40

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Artist Biography: (none) EXHIBITIONS: 2005 - New Guinea Art. Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede. de Young Museum, San Francisco, 2005. PUBLICATIONS: 2009 FAM Bulletin entry (unabridged) - "Fighting shields, reipe, were used in large formalized battles that once took place between hundreds of warriors in the wide grasslands on the floor of the Wahgi Valley in the New Guinea Western Highlands. Leading warriors painted black with soot carried brightly colored shields decorated with waving feather headdresses to protect the spearmen and, further back, the bowmen. There is one main tiber used for shields in the Wahgi Valley, called reipe or teipe; hence the common term for a shield is kumbe reipe (literally, "wall of the reipe tree"). The designs on individual shields are abstract, with combinations of circles and triangles punctuated into its smooth surface and boldly painted colors made from ochres. These bold colors can be outlined in charcoal to highlight the dark and light elements. On this particular shield, design elements can be readily named: the central circle is a navel; inside are swiftlet wings; the small circle above depicts a forehead decoration made of shell; and on the sides are designs like those painted on the cheeks of dancers. (1) However, discerning an overall meaning for the complete design is more difficult. Fundamentally, there is evidence to suggest an anthropomorphic interpretation, with the bold "X" forming a figure with outstretched arms and legs. The center being designated "navel" reinforces this notion. (2) Highland shields are ideal for use in traditional warfare against spears and arrows, but since the introduction of guns into tribal fighting from the mid-1980s, shields have gradually become obsolete." FOOTNOTES (1) Andrew and Marilyn Strathern, Self-decoration in Mount Hagen, Peter J. Ucko, ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971), 103. (2) J. A. Abramson, "Style in New Guinea Highlands Shields," Mankind 7 (1969): 59-66; Michael O'Hanlon, Reading the Skin: Adornment, Display, and Society among the Wahgi (London: British Museum Publications Ltd., 1989), 82-85, 109. 2005 - "The design on this shield has perhaps the closest affinity to that of several shields from Kuta (approximately 5 km south of Mount Hagen in Wahgi Valley), as shown on a photo of a mock battle staged by Mick Leahy in 1936 (see Boylan and North, 1997: 78, fig. 12). It may also be compared with that of a shield from the Nebilyer valley, southwest of Mount Hagen. There is also a relationship with designs on Maring shields from the Jimi River Valley and the Simbai River Valley (Madang Province), particularly where a central circle, flanked by triangular shapes occurs (Senepart, 2000, pl. 1-3, 9, 14, 15, and 16). Results of research undertaken by Lowman on the function of Maring shield designs in the context of traditional warfare are probably also applicable to related shields from other highlands provinces like the example shown here. Maring shields were intended to speak with power to inspire fear in the enemy "with their highly contrasting and often brilliant designs" which were perceived as dazzling and terrifying "like the light of the sun" (ibid., 16, 18). Because the designs needed to be seen from great distances, they were "geometrically formal and composed of large, repetetive design elements." The Maring artists assessed the effectiveness of their work by viewing it from distances of 20 meters (ibid., 28). A drawing of a shield from the Mount Hagen area with a similar design is used by the Stratherns to describe and explain the names of the various design elements. Accordingly, they write that the circle painted in the middle of the shield represents a navel (uklimp), which occurs on almost all of the shields. The design within the circle is "two double chevrons meeting in the center of the shield dividing it in a number of distinctively painted panels; the chevrons were filled with white, the side panels with black, and the top and bottom with red. [This is also the case as in our shield.] The design was said to resemble swiftlet wings, kendepai pou. It is the same as that for the forehead ornament which is worn by the warrior." Furthermore, "roughly triangular areas, rounded at the tips, done in red ochre (kela) [are] described as 'forehead ornaments' (ndum) or 'red heads' (peng kela) of the shield (reipi). Other designs, called pokan kuklumb waep, were interpreted as "resembling the sheath of the pokan shrub and the rounded leaves of the kuklumb plant." Finally, there are "chevrons, as worn on the face," called waep kerua (ibid). This latter interpretation suggests identification between the shield and the man who manipulates it in warfare for his protection. The Stratherns state that "a warrior's shield was almost like an extension of himself...Shields have a 'head' (their top) which is decorated with plumes [just as for the warrior himself], and their main surface is painted with designs that in appearance follow the pattern of those painted on cheeks" (ibid.). While making shields like this, as well as other weapons, "men were supposed to seclude themselves in a men's house and not have intercourse with their wives. It was feared that, should they do so, the weapons would be weakened: the axe would break, the spear splinter, the shield split. Shields might even be made far away from the home settlement, out in the bush or forest, where suitable hardwoods were found and where women were unlikely to venture" (ibid., 104)." (Catalog #580, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 188.)

Related Keywords
Reipi Shield III Parker S Harry Wilsey B Diane honor Friede John Marcia Gift speakers language Imbongu Melpa Oceania Province Highlands Western Guinea New Armor Arms fiber pigment dancers cheeks designs sides shell decoration forehead depicts small wings swiftlet navel circle central elements light dark highlight charcoal outlined ochres made colors painted surface into punctuated triangles circles abstract design tree teipe reipe wood Carved 0709200406050450 A361056 2007.44.40 AOA