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Ceremonial chair
OS 0769   Sepik River Basin, Papua New Guinea

Ceremonial chair

This wooden statue is from the Iatmul people, living in the middle stream of the Sepik River. The other side of the statue is a chair, but people never sit on it. During important rites and arguments, an orator emphasizes his points by beating the chair with a bunch of twigs, or by placing a twig on the chair during every pause in his story.

The “Chechemeni” ocean-going canoe| Canoe splashboard | Navigation chart | Feather money | Bark cloth (tapa) |
Stone pestle and mortar for making poi | Māori storehouse (pātaka) | Ceremonial chair

Migrations and adaptation of Austronesian-speaking peoples