GABLE SCULPTURES OF THE SEPIK
105
NOTES
1. The origin of the word nambal apparently lies in the terms mbalmbal,
which means “the assassinated one,” and mbal mi, which means
“human fl esh,” mi being an indicator of possession (personal
communication with Françoise Cayrol).
2. The custom of placing upside-down pots on the ends of ridgepoles of
the ceremonial or cult houses was widespread in a large part of the Nduspeaking
region.
3. The Paiembit house that existed during Bateson’s stay in this village in
1912 did not have a gable sculpture on it (Bateson, 1971: plate I).
4. The population of every Iatmul village is thusly divided into two
patrilineal moieties.
5. The bird-reptile relationship is frequently encountered in the
mythologies of Sepik peoples as Paul Wirz demonstrates in his 1955
article titled “The Signifi cance of the Serpent and the Bird in the Sepik
Region.”
6. Crocodiles, like birds, make nests in which they lay their eggs.
7. Pidgin name for the Octomeles sumatrana tree. In another myth told
by Kamen Kama of the village of Yentchen (Coiffi er, 1994: 1099), it is
a leadwood tree (Terminalia catappa). This tree has the particularity of
undergoing an annual reddening of its leaves, which turn a carmine red
color before falling off. The color is locally associated with blood from a
decapitation.
8. A similar myth is known among the Marind-Anim. Two brothers,
crocodile and eagle, transport a young woman on their backs to abduct
her (Wirz 1922:133,134).
9. Adzes with stone blades were used until the beginning of the twentieth
century.
10. It is possible that in the past the blood of a human victim may
sometimes have been used.
11. The inhabitants of this area speak a language that is fairly similar to
that spoken by the Iatmul.
12. The term ngekau, the generic name for Iatmul ceremonial houses, can
thus be translated as the vital urge and the warrior energy of the men’s
community represented by this house (nge).
13. The term kaulagwa means woman-warrior or female eagle. The term
kaulapuan was also used.
14. Sela is the term used to designate the dusky scrubfowl (Megapodius
freycinet). Selalagwa means a female chicken.
15. The only known example of an object of this kind is in the Saint Louis
Art Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aufenanger, Henry, 1975. The Great Inheritance in Northeast New
Guinea. A Collection of Anthropological Data, coll. Instituti Anthropos,
vol. 9, St. Augustin, Anthropos Institute.
Bateson, Gregory, 1932.”Social Structure of the Iatmul People of the Sepik
River,” Oceania, vol. 2: 245–291 and 401–453.
———, (1936) 1958. Naven. A Survey of the Problems Suggested by a
Composite Picture of the Culture of a New Guinea Tribe Drawn from
Three Points of View. Stanford (California), Stanford University Press,
trad. française 1971: J.-P. Latouche and N. Safouan, La cérémonie du
naven, Paris, éditions de Minuit.
Coiffi er, Christian, 1982. Architecture mélanésienne : étude du village de
Palimbeï et des maisons cérémonielles de la vallée du fl euve Sepik, vol.
2, mémoire de 3rd cycle, Paris, U.P.6, École d’architecture de Paris-La-
Villette, (multigr.).
———, 1994. “L’écorce et la moelle du rotin,” Tshimbe kuvu, kwiya kuvu,
Conception iatmul de l’univers, Thèse de doctorat, Paris, EHESS, 5
volumes.
———, 2007. “Le casoar et le calao, statut de l’oiseau chez les peuples de
langue Ndu en Nouvelle-Guinée” in Oiseaux, héros et devins, Eurasie,
Paris, L’Harmattan, no. 17: 241–275.
Coiffi er, Christian and Catherine Orliac, 2000–2004. “L’arbre miamba et
la maison cérémonielle iatmul” (Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée), JATBA
Revue d’ethnobiologie, vol. 42: 147–163.
Craig, Barry (ed.), 2010. Living Spirits with Fixed Abodes, The
Masterpieces Exhibition Papua New-Guinea National Museum and Art
Gallery, Honolulu, University of Hawai’i Press.
Eichhorn, August, 1929. Chez les habitants du fl euve Sepik (Nouvelle-
Guinée), “L’art des Océaniens,” Cahiers d’Art, no. 2–3: 73–78.
Garnier, Nicolas, 2018. “Tabourets d’orateur du Moyen Sepik. Réfl exions
autour d’objets inaliénables,” Tribal Art magazine, spring,
XXII-2/no. 87: 98–117.
Gobikambe, Andrew, 1984. “The Kuau-tu Fishing Practices of the Namio
People, East Sepik Province,” in Subsistence Fishing Practices of Papua
New Guinea, Traditional Technology series no. 2, Laé, Appropriate
Technology Development Institute, Liklik Buk Information Centre,
112–115.
Haberland, Eike, 1968. The Caves of Karawari, New York, D’Arcy Galleries.
———, 1969. “Die Töpfergottheit Korimangge im Männerhaus Wolimbit
in Kanganamun (Mittlerer Sepik), (Zusatz zum vorhergehenden Aufsatz
von Meinhard Schuster),” Paideuma, Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde,
Band. XV: 160–161.
Haberland, Eike and Meinhard Schuster, 1964. Sepik. Kunst aus
Neuguinea, Francfort-sur-le-Main, Schaumainkai 63.
Harrison, Simon, 1982. “Yams and the Symbolic Representation of Time in
a Sepik River Village,” Oceania, vol. 53 (2): 141–162.
Hauser-Schäublin, Brigitta, 1986. “The Visual Expression of Man’s Relation
to Death and the World of Spirits,” Paper for the Symposium no. 101:
Sepik Culture History: Variation and Synthesis” (15–24 February 1986),
Mijas (Espagne), Wenner-Gren Foundation.
———, 1989. Kulthäuser in Nordneuguinea, Berlin, Akademie-Verlag.
Hébert, Bernard, 1965,”Nouvelles-Hébrides : notes sur les cases
traditionnelles d’habitation et de réunion des îles du Centre Sud,” in
Études Mélanésiennes, no. 6, 7–21.
Kelm, Heinz, 1966. Kunst vom Sepik, vol. I, Neue Folge 10, Abteilung
Südsee V, Berlin, Museum für Völkerkunde.
Layard, John, M. A., 1942. Stone Men of Malekula, Vao, London, Chatto
& Windus.
Le Fur, Yves, 2007. Musée du quai Branly. La Collection, Notice de
Christian Coiffi er: sculpture faîtière, Paris, Skira Flammarion/Musée du
Quai Branly, pp. 228–229.
Mead, Margaret, 1963. Moeurs et sexualité en Océanie, translated by G.
Chevassus, Paris, Plon.
Peltier, Philippe; Markus Schindlbeck; and Christian Kaufmann, (edsß.),
2016. Sepik. Arts de Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée, Paris, Skira/Musée du
Quai Branly.
Reche, Otto, 1913. Der Kaiserin-Augusta-Fluss, in Ergebnisse der Südsee-
Expédition 1908-1910, Erausgegebenvon G. Thilenius, II. Ethnographie:
A. Melanesien, Band 1, Hambourg, L. Friederichsen & Co.
Rosenthal, Frieda B., 1969. The Symbolism of the Iatmul Ceremonial
House, Master of the Arts in the Faculty of Philosophy, New York,
Columbia University.
Ruff, M.; Ruth Ruff; and George Loupis, 1981. Kanganaman. A
Preliminary Report on Earthquake Damage, Lae, University of
Technology (multigraph).
Schindlbeck, Markus, 1985. “Männerhaus und weibliche Giebelfi gur am
Mittelsepik, Papua-Neuguinea,” Baessler-Archiv, Neue Folge, Band
XXXIII: 363–411.
Schuster, Meinhard, 1961. “Museums-Expedition nach Neuguinea, in
Frankfurt Lebendige St,” Vierteljahreshefte für Kultur. Wirtschaft und
Verkehr, Heft 4: 28–31.
Stanek, Milan, 1982. Geschichten der Kopfjäger, Cologne, Eugen
Diederichs.
Wassmann, Jürg, 1991. The Song to the Flying Fox, Port Moresby, The
National Research Institute.
Wirz, Paul, 1922. Die Marind-anim von Höllandisch-Süd-Neu-Guinea, Die
Materielle Kultur der Marind-anim, Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiet der
Auslandskunde, band 10 und 6, Hamburg, Hamburgische Unversität.
———, 1955. “La signifi cation du serpent et de l’oiseau sur le territoire
du Sepik (Nouvelle-Guinée),” Bulletin des musées royaux d’Art et
d’Histoire, 4th séries.