Dance shield
- Museum number:
- 11-39242
- Permalink:
- ark:/21549/hm21110039242
- Accession number:
- Acc.2006
- Description:
- Dance shield; carved and painted; constricted handle in center, symmetrical ends broad and covered with intricate relief and cut-through designs. Such objects were carried by dancers who performed in the month-long festival for the yam harvest. In addition to intricate dances, the festival included the distribution of food to all participants and the display of food and valuables as an offering to the spirits of the village dead who were believed to visit the community at this time of year. L. 66.3 cm, W 24.6 cm
- Donor:
- Bronislaw Malinowski and University Appropriation
- Collection place:
- Muyua Island, Milne Bay Province, Papua Region
- Verbatim coll. place:
- Melanesia; Trobriand Islands
- Culture or time period:
- Massim
- Collector:
- Bronislaw Malinowski
- Collection date:
- 1914-1920
- Object type:
- ethnography
- Object class:
- Dance shields
- Function:
- 5.3 Objects relating to the Secular and Quasi-religious Rites, Pageants, and Drama
- Accession date:
- 1965
- Department:
- Oceania
- Loans:
- S1980-1981 #34: Triton Museum of Art (November 17, 1980–January 7, 1981), S1985-1986 #47: Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale Univ.) (April 1, 1986–July 31, 1986), S1985-1986 #48: Jagiellonian University, Poland (October 1, 1986–March 31, 1987), S1985-1986 #49: Warsaw Museum of Asia and the Pacific (1987–1987), and S1985-1986 #9: Arizona State Museum (September 20, 1985–February 7, 1986)
- Images: