Malanggan

Shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folkore Award 2003 Malanggan are among the most treasured possessions in the Pacific, yet they continue to confound anthropologists. Central to funerals in New Ireland, these ‘death'' figures are intended to decompose as symbolic representations of the dead. Wrapped in images that are conceived of as ‘skins'', they are both visually complex and intriguing. This...