10973
FIG. 2 (upper left): Gable
sculpture. Middle Sepik,
Papua New Guinea.
Collected in 1962.
Wood. H: 103 cm.
From Kelm, 1966, no. 369.
© bpk/Ethnologisches Museum, SMB.
FIG. 3 (above): Ceremonial
house in the village of
Kapriman (Kreïmbit), Papua
New Guinea.
© C. Coiffi er, 1988.
FIG. 4 (right): Gable
sculptures in wood and
terracotta collected in
1912/1913. Papua New
Guinea.
From Reche, 1913: plate XXXIV.
er Valley in Papua New Guinea’s East Sepik
Province (fi g. 1). The oldest known examples of
these sculptures were brought to Europe by the
fi rst German expeditions in the early twentieth
century. Numerous examples were subsequently
collected and are now in both public and private
collections.
PLACEMENT OF GABLE SCULPTURES
Gable sculptures that were representations of
birds were particularly prevalent on the ceremonial
houses of the Central Sepik River Valley,
which were exclusively used by initiated men.
According to accounts provided by elders, any
villager who expressed the intention of putting
a sculpture of this kind on a family house would
arouse indignation and be the cause of serious
confl ict among members of the community, who
might go so far as to destroy his house and even
physically attack him. Gable sculptures can still
be seen today on the ceremonial houses of the
Chambri, Biwat, Kapriman, Manambu, Sawos,
and Iatmul peoples (fi g. 3). In the last three of