Skip to main content

Image / Pig festival, wig ritual, Tsembaga: man's hair is pulled over wig frame

Have a question about this item?

Item information. View source record on contributor's website.

Title
Pig festival, wig ritual, Tsembaga: man's hair is pulled over wig frame
Creator
Rappaport, Roy A
Date Created and/or Issued
October 1963
Contributing Institution
UC San Diego, Special Collections and Archives
Collection
Roy Rappaport Collection
Rights Information
Under copyright
Constraint(s) on Use: This work is protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Use of this work beyond that allowed by "fair use" requires written permission of the UC Regents. Responsibility for obtaining permissions and any use and distribution of this work rests exclusively with the user and not the UC San Diego Library. Inquiries can be made to the UC San Diego Library program having custody of the work.
Use: This work is available from the UC San Diego Library. This digital copy of the work is intended to support research, teaching, and private study.
Rights Holder and Contact
UC Regents
Description
Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0175 (https://lib.ucsd.edu/sca)
This digital image is a surrogate of an item from the Roy Rappaport Papers (Archive negative 2, Roll 44, Envelope 20-25, Frame 23)
"When all but the final preparations at the raku are completed some of the young men undergo ritual dedication to the red spirits. The initiates are secluded in the men's house enclosure behind the pave and their hair is worked into constructions called mamp gunc. Round frames, about six inches high, made of the bark of the kirim tree (Lauraceae sp.) are placed on their heads like crowns. The hair, which has remained uncut since puberty, is pulled up through the center and down over the sides of the frame, hiding it completely. The melted sap of an unidentified three called gunc, which gives the construction its name ('head gunc'), and which upon cooling, leaves the surface hard, is then applied. Finally, the headdress is dyed red, with trade pigments now" (Roy Rappaport, Pigs for the Ancestors: Ritual in the Ecology of a New Guinea People, Rev. ed., Yale University, pg. 202).
[Title, Date]. Roy Rappaport Papers. MSS 516. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. [Digital Object URL]
Type
image
Identifier
ark:/20775/bb3585093f
Subject
Rites and ceremonies
Wigs
Maring (Papua New Guinean people)
Pacific Islands
Melanesia
Papua New Guinea
Oceania
Madang Province (Papua New Guinea)
Place
Pacific Islands
Melanesia
Papua New Guinea
Oceania
Madang Province (Papua New Guinea)

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.

Explore related content on Calisphere: