["Aripa, figura antropomorfa", "Aripa", "Aripa", "Aripa"]

Description:

The aripa figures come from the ancestors of the Inyai and Ewa peoples, from the shores of the Korewori River, one of the tributaries of the Sepik River in the northeast of the island of New Guinea. Dating from between the 16th and 19th centuries, these types of sculptures were able to be protected from the tropical climate by being kept for generations in the caves and rocky shelters of the area of the Korewori River, where they were discovered by missionaries quite recently, in the nineteen-sixties. The discovery had a major impact on the art world and, in fact, they are still today considered the oldest artistic conserved and known items of Melanesia. Due to their age and the lack of written sources, there is insufficient data to determine accurately the use and symbolism of the figures. Despite this, it is believed that they were used in the rituals of hunters, perhaps in the same way as the yipwon were used by the Yiwam people. Each hunter asked for the support of these figures-helpers and, as an offering, gave the aripa a mixture made up of waste from the animals killed in hunting trips and their own blood, with the hope that the spirit of the figure would dare to hunt and kill other souls of the same kind as the sacrificed animals. As is common in this type of statuary, this sculpture has a stylised form designed to be seen from the side. Carved in wood, of note is its expressive strength and particular alternation of empty and full surfaces that represent the internal anatomy of a human body.

Location:

Papua New Guinea

Format:

image

Collections:

Museum of Cultures of the World

Content partner:

Museum of Cultures of the World

Availability:

Not specified