Skull Art in Papua New Guinea - PREVIEW

Purchase: http://www.der.org/films/skull-art-in-papua-new-guinea.html

Historically, skull art is associated with tribal warfare and headhunting, banned by the colonial administration in the 1920's, and equally outlawed in modern independent Papua New Guinea. Because of its association with a banned practice, skull art has become rare and is carried out in secrecy. This video documents the over-modeling in clay of a real human skull in Lae, Papua New Guinea, in the spring of 1997. An adorned skull commemorates and honors a dead person. Some have linked skull art to masking. Others have observed that skull art is quite realistic. Historic skulls-portraits capture individuals' real life features.

a video by Sabine Jell-Bahlsen
distributed by Documentary Educational Resources

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Oceania
• Papua New Guinea
• skull
• art
• headhunting
• Haus Tambaran
• spirit
• Sepik
• ritual war
• anthropology
• documentary