Durham E-Theses Colour and Ceremony: the role of paints among the Mendi and Sulka peoples of Papua New Guinea HILL, ROWENA,CATHERINE How to cite: HILL, ROWENA,CATHERINE (2011) Colour and Ceremony: the role of paints among the Mendi and Sulka peoples of Papua New Guinea, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3562/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 COLOUR AND CEREMONY: THE ROLE OF PAINTS AMONG THE MENDI AND SULKA PEOPLES OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA Rowena Hill, 2011 Thesis submitted for Master of Arts Degree, Department of Anthropology, Durham University The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged 0 CONTENTS Contents 1 List of Figures and Tables 2 - 6 Chapter 1 Introduction and Problem Setting 7 Chapter 2 Literary Review and Related research 17 Chapter 3 The People and Their Environment 23 Chapter 4 Colour Perception and Preference 36 Chapter 5 Colour Use and Designs 46 Chapter 6 Paints and Painting: Raw Materials and 64 Application Techniques Chapter 7 Paints, Adornment and Ceremony 92 Chapter 8 Paints and the Ancestors: Paint used in 118 Secret cults, Masking and Magic Chapter 9 Paint Use: Meanings and Contexts Explained 148 1 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure No Title Page No. Cover page Sulka mask (photo credit B. Craig); Mendi warrior (photo credit Gordon and Gotch) 1 Map of Papua New Guinea showing location of Southern 23 Highlands and East New Britain Provinces 2 Map showing distribution of languages in Southern 24 Highlands Province 3 Map showing relationship of Mendi town to Bela and 25 Sol 4 Language map for East New Britain 28 5 Map of Wide Bay showing settlements 32 6 Evolution of Colour terms (Stages I to VII) 37 7 Evolution of Colour terms (Stages I to VII)- Revised 38 8 Red and Black Pigs 40 9 Enga dancers at Mount Hagen Show, 2010. 41 10 Bird of Paradise Decorations 42 11 Mendi Orange Clay 42 12 Sulka masks showing green and blue colours 44 13 Mendi fibre bag (bilum) 44 14 Mendi Woman in mourning dress 48 15 Painted pigs displayed at sa ink festival 48 16 Pearl shell (Pinctada maxima) 49 17 Mendi scull rack 50 18 Sticks (kopon) painted in red ochre 50 19 Mendi Hornbill Beak Ornament 51 20 Arrow painted with red ochre 51 21 Mendi smoking pipe 51 22 Mendi Kepel Stones 52 23 Styles of Mendi Men’s Face Painting 53 2 24 Mendi War Shields 54 25 Designs on Wola shields 55 26 Mendi Shields with Anthropomorphic Designs 56 27 Sulka War Clubs, Ubersee Museum, Bremen 57 28 Sulka club and shield (contemporary) 57 29 (a) Mengen smoking pipe, (b) Sulka limegourd 57 30 Sulka loincloths (katam) 58 31 The ‘eye’ design on Sulka shields 59 32 Examples of Sulka Shields 60 33 Carved wooden sculptures on masks and head ornaments 60 34 Ochre Deposit by Road Cutting (Mendi) 69 35 Ochre Balls: Gahuku People 69 36 Baking clays to make them redder 70 37 Source of white clay 71 38 Mendi man’s hat painted in white clay 71 39 Dyes on Mendi fibre bags (bilums) 73 40 Berries of Ardisia sp used as Mendi woman’s face paint 74 41 South Fore woman dyeing bilum twine with Begonia 74 leaves and ash 42 Sulka woman digging orange clay from 77 under limestone outcrop. 43 Lime powder made from baked coral Acropa sp. 77 44 White mineral paints (Sulka) 78 45 Paintwork on canoes (Sulka) 79 46 Sources of green earth (Sulka) 80 47 Carbon Black Paint (Sulka) 82 48 Red coleus dye used to paint masks 86 49 Stages in the preparation of red paints 87 50 Black paint for Sulka men’s loincloths 88 3 51 Fibre bag (Sulka) with red and blue plant dyes 89 52 Design for new mask 90 53 Sulka woman cutting turmeric root 90 54 Bride and groom’s dress for bride-wealth exchange 95 55 White paint used for mourning (Mendi) 97 56 Paints for Tais Maike 98 57 Mendi Paint in Self Decoration 100 58 Women’s face painting styles for mok Ink 101 59 Men’s clothing for mok ink 103 60 Sulka men and boys wearing loincloths 104 61 Sulka man’s clothing and armband 106 62 Painted Artifacts associated with teeth blackening 106 63 Sulka woman wearing traditional clothing 107 64 Sulka woman making belt (lep) 107 65 Tolai body painting 108 66 Sulka bridewealth exchanges 109 67 Sulka women dancing in red cloth waists bands 110 68 Sulka women dancing at a mortuary ceremony 112 69 Sulka men in a mock war dance carrying shields 114 70 Men’s face paint 115 71 Sulka men dancing in colourfully painted ornaments 115 72 Pig being clubbed over the head 121 73 Mendi girl’s face paint for timp ceremony 121 74 Mendi masks used in the timp ceremony 122 75 A selection of painted kepel stones (Mendi) 124 76 Painted equipment used in the temon ne leprosy curing 127 ceremony (Mendi) 77 Painted objects used in healing rituals 128 78 Source of white paint (Mendi) 131 4 79 Magic charms (Mendi) 132 80 Mendi man’s bag 132 81 Small version of painted slit gong (Sulka) 133 82 Slit gong 134 83 Matpil commemorative posts (Sulka) 135 84 Sulka - painted bone container (tra) 136 85 Sulka man painting matpil 136 86 Construction and painting of Sulka masks 137 87 Keipa masks performing (Sulka) 139 88 Lilwong masks (Sulka) 139 89 Examples of susu masks (Sulka) 140 90 Hemlaut mask being painted (Sulka) 140 91 A’nunu style of susu mask 141 92(a) Hemlaut mask (Sulka) 141 92(b) Mask-shaped reef (Sulka) 141 93 Rei dance ornaments (Sulka) 142 94 Kot dance ornaments 142 95 Pig magic (Sulka) 145 5 Table Title Page Number Number 1 Sulka Bird Moieties with their Totems Names 33 2 Sulka Clan Names 34 3 Sulka and Mendi Colour terms 39 4 Mendi and Wola Pig Colour Classification 40 5 Examples of Sulka Motifs and their Sulka 63 Interpretations 6 Results of Mineral Pigment Analysis Using X-ray 72 Diffraction 7 Summary of Sulka Paints from Botanical Sources 84 6 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM SETTING Introduction to the Use of Paints in Papua New Guinea In Papua New Guinea (from hereon referred to as PNG) paints have been used for thousands of years and still play a part in people’s lives. The earliest evidence of paint use in the region comes from the Asaro valley, Eastern Highlands, (Figure 1) at a rock painting site dated at 9290 + 140 years BP where ochre lumps were found in the cave floor, (White 1973). Traditional paints, earth ochres and organic pigments, are still used today for self decoration, artefact painting and in ritual activities. Large areas of PNG are still covered in primary rain forest, with natural grassland in the higher altitudes. The people are principally subsistence horticulturalists, and until recently, derived most their raw materials, including their paints, from their immediate environment. There were also extensive trading networks to obtain materials not locally available, such as marine shells from the coast to the Highlands region, acquired as exchange items. Ochre paints were also traded as they were considered an important commodity. Nowadays, commercially prepared paints, as well as traditional ones, are incorporated into the palette of painters. Among PNG peoples, paints perform several important roles which are a key part of ceremonial life. On objects, as well as enhancing beauty, paints are used to encode certain meanings, to camouflage interior structures and to transform them into something spiritually powerful. Paints, particularly red ochre, are so valued they are applied to gift exchange items, such as shells, to enhance value (Sillitoe 1979). In shield art, paint functioned to intimidate the enemy (Sillitoe 2009) and needed to be bright in order to be seen from a distance (Abramson, 1969). Shields were often re-painted before each battle to keep the colours bright (Craig 2005). On human bodies paints act as an outer decorative layer, coating the skin, improving appearance, accentuating strength (Sillitoe 2009), and reinforcing gender roles (O’Hanlon 1983). In certain ceremonies paints are used to mask the wearers’ identities and transcend them into powerful spiritual beings (Corbin 1979). Paint may be applied in monochrome blocks or arranged in polychrome style, for instance as stripes, geometric patterns or symbolic motifs forming a system of semiotics relating to people’s spiritual beliefs. Certain designs might be intended as ancestor figures, animal shapes or plant parts, while others are merely abstract forms (Beran and Craig 2005). 7 As the outermost layer of ceremonial artefacts, paint is often the only material visible and becomes the primary medium of communication between the object and its viewers; it is used to relay messages to prescribed audiences (O’Hanlon 1989) - humans and spirits.