For the indigenous communities of
the Papuan Gulf of New Guinea, spirit boards (gope) operate as protection
against misfortune and evil beings. Constructed of ibua wood reclaimed from
old canoes, gope depict the ancestral spirits (imunu) connected to
a village clan.[1] Named after the individual entity and carved to represent
them, gope frequently possess large eyes which permit them to watch over
members of the clan and a prominent navel that allows the spirit to enter the
wooden carving.[2] In villages throughout New Guinea, gope are regularly
housed on shrines in the communal longhouses where male clansmen gather and
sleep, protecting these individuals from any harm; however, some communities
along the Fly River also adorn their canoes with gope to protect occupants
as they travel and use the crafts for fishing and transporting goods.[3] Additionally,
miniature versions of gope that are not tied to ancestral spirits are given
to boys as part of their initiation process, where they hang above their beds
and assist in their maturation into manhood.[4]
Works Referenced
Coe, Kathryn. The Ancestress
Hypothesis: Visual Art as Adaptation. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University
Press, 2003.
Kjellgren, Eric. Oceania: Art of
the Pacific Islands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 2007.
Kjellgren, Eric. How To Read
Oceanic Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
Ryan, John Charles. “‘If We Return
We Will Learn:’ Empire, Poetry, and Bicultural Knowledge in Papua New Guinea.” Empire
and Environment: Ecological Riun in the Transpacific. Eds. Jeffrey Santa
Ana, Heidi Amin-Hong, Rina Garcia Chua, and Zhou Xiaojing. Ann Arbor, MI: University
of Michigan Press, 2022. 94-110.
____________________
[1] Ryan, 103.
[2] Kjellgren, How to Read
Oceanic Art, 55-57.
[3] Kjellgren, Oceania, 131-132.
[4] Coe, 34.
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