lime gourd

Description:

Chief’s Lime Gourd, Fa‘onga, Mekeo people, Central Province, Papua New Guinea. The fa‘onga lime gourd is one of the vital regalia of the tofua fa‘a, the highest ranking chief in any clan of the Mekeo people. Fa ‘onga lime gourds are bigger than the ordinary apu gourds of the Mekeo commoners, and are used by the chiefs in a number of distinctive ways. Over and above their basic use for storing the powdered coral limestone used in the chewing of bete lnut (Areca), Mekeo chiefs mainly use their fa‘onga as noise-makers. Either by banging his lime spatula (a carved wooden implement that stands in the gourd to act as a dipper) on the gourd’s bottom, or by rasping it back and forth across the gourd’s mouth, the high chief would silence people and draw their attention to hear his speeches and commands. No Mekeo commoner is permitted to either touch or make a gourd similar to a chiefly fa‘onga, or to make either attention-grabbing noise with his ordinary gourd. Every tofua fa‘a is the absolute master of his clan ceremonial house (ufu), and so one chief is always very reluctant to visit the ufu of another. When diplomatic missions are required, therefore, chiefs must be persuaded and cajoled (in a theatrical way, at the very least) into making such a visit, and this is done by strewing betel nuts in their path to honour them. Similarly, one of a Mekeo chief’s main responsibilities is to maintain peace during disputes with other villages. When such disputes look like they are going to turn from verbal arguments to physical violence, a skillful chief would often used his fa‘onga gourd to intervene; by spraying the powdered limestone inside the gourd between the arguing men, he could diffuse the fight and reassert control. Gourd, wax, dog tooth, human hair. Early 20th Century. Collected by the explorer and writer Mr. A.E. Pratt, and sold by him to the Horniman Museum in 1905. Chiefs' lime gourd, covered with wax, embedded with Dogs' teeth, and hair.

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Horniman Museum and Gardens

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Horniman Museum and Gardens

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