Early 20th C. Indonesian Wood Altar w/ Ancestral Female

Southeast Asia, Eastern Indonesia, Leti Islands, Maluku Islands (Maluku Province), ca. early 20th century CE. An interesting, hand-carved wooden altar featuring an ancestral woman standing atop the back wall. The altar is composed of four collapsible wood planks that surround a central fifth panel meant to receive offerings for the ancestral figure. Each panel save for the center is engraved with elaborate foliate and zoomorphic motifs, and both widthwise panels bear abstract, openwork avian creatures on the sides. The nude woman stands atop a pair of mortises in the back panel, wears a chain link belt, holds a pair of openwork avian panels in raised, vine-wrapped arms, and features a pair of vines wrapping around her breasts. Her inverted piriform head bears ovoid eyes and a prominent nose beneath an eccentric crown adorned with similar avian motifs as the altar panels. Size (altar): 25" L x 23.5" W x 7.2" H (63.5 cm x 59.7 cm x 18.3 cm); (figure): 28.5" W x 38" H (72.4 cm x 96.5 cm); 42.5" H (108 cm) when standing in back panel.

This wonderful altar would have been dedicated to the founding ancestress of a particular kinship group from the islands. The founding mother is the most important ancestor for the people of the Leti Islands, who are matrilineal. She promotes the status of the group with her adornment - in this case, her crown and upper body details indicate the high status of the group. The crescent-shaped pendant atop her chest is known as the mas tanduk ("gold horns" in Moluccan Malay) and represents a hunting trophy. Her wooden altar pedestal is known as a yademu and is meant to have symbolically 'sacrificial' offerings placed inside the recessed center for her.

See a very similar one collected by Wilhelm Muller in 1912 at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne, Germany.

Provenance: private Orange County, California, USA collection acquired between 1980 and 1985; ex-private San Diego, California, USA collection

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#156229
Condition Report: Repair to periphery of center panel and stabilization to fissures along one corner, with light adhesive residue along break lines; four larger panels are intact and very good. Figure repaired from three large pieces with light adhesive residue along break lines; arms are removable. Abrasions and light encrustations on all panels. Nice patina throughout.