Gallery Label
The islands of Vanuatu comprise many languages and cultures, whose artists have produced objects made with a wide diversity of materials and techniques. This figure has the typical features of a nineteenth-century Banks Island sculpture: elongated torso, serrated backbone, clearly defined arms and legs, and pointed cap and chin. Figures of this type often were made of a more fibrous fernwood; however, this example is made of a hardwood variety. These figures were commissioned for specific celebrations associated with the grade society initiations that dominated the social order in the Banks Islands.
The local society was broken down into a series of ranks, each requiring initiation. The Banks Islands area was under the single value system and code of conduct delineated by suque, the local term for the nonhereditary graded society. This system was based on complicated ritual practices associated with initiation into a succession of ranks based on displays of wealth and the learning of secret knowledge. Men moved through the initiation to higher levels, celebrating their increased knowledge with feasts, dances, the donation of pigs as symbols of wealth, and the commission of carved figures that were placed in specially built structures. These rituals were the primary means of increasing power and prestige in the community.
Most of the carved figures are believed to represent spirits or ancestors and were associated with specific ranks known to the initiates during the movement to their new rank. However, the particular grade of this sculpture is not known.
