Book
Raja Ampat Ritual Art
Spirit priests and ancestor cults in new guinea's far west
- Author
- Raymond Corbey
- Date
- 20 July 2017
- Links
- Website of the publisher
Presenting a wealth of fascinating details and new insights Raja Ampat Ritual Art discusses the social and cosmological background of the ancestor and spirit figurines from the archipelago.
In the process it is shown how the demise and the exodus of the traditional art resulted from complex interactions between indigenous agency, conversion, cargo cult activity, modernization and, last but not least, interventions by administrators.
The present publication includes a number of stunning, sacred-secret drawings depicting the spirit world, devised by indigenous priests to serve them in their rituals. Acquired during the 1930s, these drawings were long believed to be lost but have recently been rediscovered.