Male Figure (Aripa)

Unknown

16th–19th century · Wood, paint · Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

With its brooding expression and stylized single leg with peglike protruding knee, this aripa figure captures the otherworldly quality of the helping spirit it represents. Carved by an artist of the Ewa people of the upper Karawari River in New Guinea, the figure shares certain stylistic features with others of its type. These include a prominent face, a central section depicting what are possibly internal organs, and a single leg. Within these conventions, however, the carver had free reign to depict the idiosyncratic anatomical features that characterized this particular spirit. Among the Ewa, each man owned such a figure. Kept in the men's ceremonial house, the figure depicted his individual helping spirit who aided him in the hunt.

Artist

Unknown

Date

16th–19th century

Medium

Wood, paint

Culture

Inyai-Ewa people

Department

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Credit line

The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Purchase, Nelson A. Rockefeller Gift, 1967