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Museum of
Anthropology exhibit explores PNG culture
A new permanent exhibit, "Face to
Face: The Arts of Exchange in Mainland Papua New Guinea" will
open today at the Wake Forest University Museum of Anthropology
in North Carolina, United States of America.
Over a period of years, the museum has gathered a significant
collection of items representing many of the diverse groups
living in Papua New Guinea, an island nation located north of
Australia.
Masks, figures, pottery and ceremonial objects will be on
display. Some of the objects are valued personal adornments worn
on special occasions to enhance the wearer's status and display
wealth.
"All the objects in the exhibit are decorated with faces,
primarily spirit faces," said Beverlye Hancock, the curator of
the exhibit. "Everything from pots to cook in to objects used in
men's ceremonial houses have faces on them. The faces represent
very powerful and protective spirits."
In conjunction with the exhibit, the museum will present "The
Art of Conflict in New Guinea," a lecture by Paul Roscoe,
professor and chairman of the anthropology department at the
University of Maine on November 8.
Roscoe will discuss how art was used by New Guinea peoples to
signal military strength. The lecture is free and open to the
public.
Many of the items were collected in the 1960s by Joan and
William Kapfer when they were technical assistants to the
Lutheran Mission in the Highlands near Mt. Hagan.
Additional items were given to the museum by other donors who
worked or traveled in Papua New Guinea, including Frank Dixon
Underwood, Russell Olson, Nancy Sokal, Adele LaBrecque, Gordon
Hanes and a group of anonymous donors. Dr. David and Karina
Rilling contributed pots and dishes with ancestor and nature
images modeled and engraved on their surfaces.
Papua New Guinea has an ancient past but its more isolated
regions have only become known to the outside world since the
1930s. The main island, the second largest in the world, has a
diversity of environments, peoples and languages, but the many
rivers and their tributaries serve as highways on which canoes
move goods from people to people and place to place. The exhibit
also explores the type and importance of trade networks between
people in the area.
Another PNG program scheduled for October 8 is "Whose Got the
Yam?"
It will focus on the Yam Festival in Papua New Guinea and relate
it to other harvest festivals.
 
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