skulptur, figur, sculpture, uli

Description:

The return of the Uli When you look at the wooden figure in the showcase, a so-called Uli from New Ireland, an island in the Bismarck Archipelago north of Papua New Guinea, you could easily get the feeling that the people who created this creature must have had extraterrestrial contacts. That is probably not the case. The figurine was part of a funeral ceremony by the same name, Uli. In the good old days this tradition, extinct since the early 20th century, was a ceremony practiced when an important leader had passed away. The figure symbolized the soul of the deceased. An Uli is an androgyne with breasts as well as penis, and a big head that symbolizes the soul, thought to be housed in the head. Every month for a period of one year or more, the village of the deceased would arrange a series of feasts to commemorate the dead person. Many pigs were slaughtered and the Uli participated. At the grand finale the neighboring villages came to the feast, all bringing their own Ulis, freshly painted for this great day. After that, the Uli was moved to a special house, owned by the “Big man” (leader) of the village. There it was put “on display” for certain selected persons to see, and to promote future spiritual support to the village and its new leader. This is not the first time that the Uli, numbered 1915.2.764, sees the day of light and is put “on display” since its long journey from New Ireland at the beginning of the last century. It was exposed in 1989, in the great exhibition about Melanesia in the Museum of Ethnography in 1989 (text from the website, object of the month, June 2007).

Location:

Papua New Guinea

Format:

image

Collections:

Museum of Ethnography

Content partner:

Museum of Ethnography

Availability:

Not specified