ASMAT CEREMONIAL COSTUME

ASMAT CEREMONIAL COSTUME
Western New Guinea

141 cm. high

Gerardus Zegwaard (in "Asmat Art: Woodcarvings of Southwest New Guinea", Leiden, 1993) relates how these rope dance costumes were worn during the "jipae" feast to celebrate the passage of the dead from the world of the living to the world of the spirits. Amongst the Central and Northwest Asmat the "jipae" feast is organised every few years during which the important people who have died since the previous "jipae" fest return for a single evening and night after which they take leave of the community permanently. After the ceremony their successors are installed and any orphaned children of the deceased are formally passed to new parents.