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Asmat people from Papua (ASMAT ART):

Asmat live in what might well be described as the worst place on Earth. Torrid jungle and muddy swamps infested with malarial mosquitoes are their everyday habitat. Their renown as artists is equaled only by their infamy as ferocious head-hunters; indeed, it has even been suggested that their seemingly compulsive preoccupation with warfare and art was a direct result of their desire to contain, subdu$e or simply forget their environment. The geographically hostile coast and its physically dangerous inhabitants are frequently mentioned in early texts, and the traveller was advised not to land anywhere along the Casuarina Coast, as Asmat territory was then called. Pre-European Asmat art works are generally extremely rare in the collections for this reason. After the Second World War, Asmat art became very popular with collectors and museums. Vast numbers of works were purchased on field expeditions and from dealers, most of which were either fresh off the carver's lap or were made for sale to Western and Asian traders.Asmat art.

Asmat tribal art (Human skull):

The skull of the enemy, or ndaok-us was kept
as a trophy and as proof of a warrior's powers. The lower jawbone was given to the women to wear as a necklace - the ultimate insult - and there is always a hole in the side of the skull where the brains were taken out to be eaten. The skull of a treasured ancestor, a ndambirkus, was treated with more respect. The lower jawbone was tightly attached to the skull with a woven rattan band. The skulls were dressed in a ceremonial manner. In most
cases the eye-sockets were filled with beeswax and inlaid with the grey seeds of job's-tears grass (Goix lachry'rna-jobi) or the red seeds of the crab's- eye vine (Abrus precatorius). The nasal cavity was often embellished with a head-hunter's bipane, a spiral shell nose-ornament. Asmat People, south-east Irian Jaya.(asmat art)

Asmat handdrum:

Handdrum with the handle in the form of a highly stylized praying mantis. The praying mantis is associated with warfare and headhunting. Asmat People, south-east Irian Jaya. Wood, lizardskin.

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