Korwars: Souls of the Dead
Korwars
Souls of the Dead
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
This month, Art of the Ancestors features an array of statues known as "korwar". The word refers directly to the "souls of the dead" or to "spirit beings", although in the local language of Biak, memorial statues are known as amfi anir. These figures were created by the indigenous peoples of Cenderawasih Bay and its surrounding areas. Formerly known as Geelvinck Bay, this bay is a large gulf on the Northwest corner of New Guinea. During the colonial period, the region's landmass was often referred to as "the Vogelkop" or "Bird's Beak," as it vaguely resembles, on a map, a long-necked avian-like creature. Numerous smaller islands also dot the nearby seascape. These include the Raja Ampat Islands, which are said to have been originally settled by people from Biak. From Biak and beyond to Cenderawasih Bay, local populations are known for their strong connections to the sea and for rich cultural traditions deeply rooted in animism and a reverence for their ancestors.
The majority of the statues illustrated here represent temporary abodes where the souls (nin) of the deceased could reside. These figures served as intermediaries allowing shamans (mon), or those able to communicate with the spirit realm, to relay messages, warn, and provide further guidance to the living. In Papua, communicating with the souls of the departed was considered essential in order to maintain the core of a group's ancestral wisdom.
The term Korwar is also broadly speaking a generic one. Outsiders use it to refer to both carvings that memorialize ancestors and images of deities that were venerated as shrine figures. Four of the latter (reproduced here) were collected in 1929 by the ethnologist J.C. van Erde. They are from an aggregation of statues that originally hailed from Mayalibit Bay on Waigeo Island, the largest isle in the Raja Ampat chain (See: Greub: Art of Northwest New Guinea, page 33 and Corbey: Raja Ampat Ritual Art, pp 34-36). These include the shrine's central female deity, her son, and his wife. In front of these divinities, a unique korwar was once situated that was said to represent a seminal local ancestor. His effigy combines a human skull attached to a wooden body carved in the form of a giant, coiled serpent ascending.
Images of a korwar, if properly created and propitiated, were thought to assist in warding off illnesses and malevolence of all sorts. Effigies of ancestors were invoked and consulted for important questions ranging from marriage to ceremonial or ritual exchanges, and as a prelude to head-hunting forays or any ocean-going voyage deemed dangerous. They were placed on altars in dwellings, boats, and in specially designated shrines. As well, korwar have been found in limestone caves or around protected rock outcroppings. Not simply memento mori, these effigies were once considered 'living' entities whose collected wisdom and advice could be perpetuated and made available to their descendants.
Hundreds of these statues have survived, making them perhaps the region's most common singular figurative artifact. Korwar can range from approximately 4 inches to 28 inches (10-70 cm) in height. They often have bulbous, large heads and prominent brows. Their sharply elongated or pointed noses often have rounded nostrils, but are often strikingly tapered. When flaring, such an unusual treatment of their nostrils is reminiscent of a sharply rendered line-drawing of a downward-facing arrow.
Further describing the creation of these statues, van Baaren, in Korwars and Korwar Style, wrote in 1968:
"We know that the making of korwars and similar carvings generally was a matter of specialists and that there was even a certain degree of specialism in making various types of objects for use in daily life. The pictures in the mon-books were, of course, made by the shamans themselves. Probably, there were some ritual prescriptions connected with the making of a korwar, but we possess no information about this. We only know that this was the case when a prau was to be ornamented with figures and designs. Missionary Jens writes: 'Only a few men are capable of drawing these designs and figurines upon it and cutting them out. Before going to work, they drink a potion prepared from certain leaves, which they also daub upon their breast and forehead. This is coupled with the superstition that if an uninitiated person were to attempt the drawing and cutting of those figures, he would die suddenly or after a few days." (page 82)
While memorial statues were most likely carved with certain proscriptions by ritual experts, for the most part, korwar tend to be rather makeshift or crudely rendered. However, the most art-worthy korwar can combine an uncanny mixture of sharp angular lines with curving arcing limbs. Their attributes can thus be both realistic and abstracted, and can be found within the same composition. Balancing the use of varying planes and shapes is a difficult artistic undertaking, but when it works fluidly (and it only rarely does), the results can be eye-pleasing and artistically evocative.
The more complex examples of these statues were carved for persons of importance. Many of these have an intricately carved fence or shield-like structure situated in front of the main figure. This 'shield' or 'balustrade' can be solid and incised or painted, but in the more elaborated korwar, it is carved in an ornate filigree or ajour style of pierced openwork that depicts the sinuous repetition of winding and descending s-curves. While the first korwar in this grouping displays little wear and a fresh surface, it was situated in the British Museum before 1865. This is significant as it shows just what a 19th-century korwar looked like right after it was made. The second korwar also displays little wear or age, but as a variation on a theme, it also tells us what a korwar from the Raja Ampat islands certainly looked like in the 19th century, as this statue was acquired in 1887 or 1888 by F. de Clerq (NMvW).
The framing of these balustrades' exterior as a protective boundary is also occasionally significant. This is perhaps best exemplified by an extraordinary skull-embedded korwar stewarded by the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. Here, the shield is framed by two mythical serpents whose open mouths with serrated teeth conjoin to expressive effect. On Waropen and Samber (Biak island), a dangerous giant snake, Ropoggai/Ropokai, was known as 'the great devourer'. Versions of colossal sea-dragons or giant serpents appear in local creation myths as well as in tales of hero-conquest that are associated with the ocean, natural disasters, the underworld, and the regenerative cycle of life. Serpentine imagery on the korwar statues is said to embrace the connection between the living and the spirit world. The placement of this permeable barrier might further suggest not only protection but also a possible 'door' that exists between the world of the living and the realm of the ancestors.
Another device that is sometimes embedded in or emerging from this sort of construct is a smaller child-like figure, a mediary or facilitator, that adds yet another layer of spiritual aegis to the entire composition. This can be seen, for example, in the korwars illustrated here from the collections of the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, The British Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Museum Nasional Indonesia.
Among the most visually electrifying korwar are those in which an ancestor's actual skull has been embedded in, placed on, or incorporated into the korwar's composition. This was sometimes done by hollowing and shrinking the wood, or by simply placing the ancestor's skull on a peg where the deceased's head might otherwise appear (amfi anir opur bukor). These figures tend to be, for the most part, larger than either lesser or later korwar. Formerly, the more embellished korwar were created for chieftains and other males of the highest status.
Korwar were generally not well understood or appreciated by Europeans as being vessels of connectivity and cultural communication. Ironically, while images and the actual use of skulls found in European Christian settings (up to and throughout the Baroque period), the missionaries first sent to Cenderawasih Bay in 1855 immediately placed korwar into a category of artifacts that were associated with barbarous practices. Most were destroyed by missionary zeal. Today, authentic korwar that include skulls are mostly situated in world museums, not private collections. Such korwar can be found in institutions that include Musée du quai Branly — Jacques Chirac (Paris), Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (the Netherlands), the Berlin-Dahlem Museum Centre (Humboldt Forum), as well as the de Young (FAMSF) in San Francisco and Indonesia's Museum Nasional.
Of interesting note are three (to my knowledge) unique korwar of unusual distinction. The first two depict engaging, double figures. The example from the Brooklyn Museum was initially collected during the La Korrigane expedition, 1934-1936, and subsequently entered the museum's collection in 1962. It depicts a pair of korwar whose limbs are both ever-so slightly akimbo, yet well-balanced with one another. This sense of bodily movement, when coupled with the slight downward tilt of their heads, gives this statue a certain twist and general appeal. Their outstretched hands curve lyrically like coiling snakes and fuse the figures into a grounding, shielding device composed of S-curves.
The second of these pairs consists of a couple that are today housed in Leiden (NMvW, the Netherlands). They (like a number of the finer items seen here) were collected in either 1887 or 1888 by F. de Clerq, a former Resident Officer stationed in Ternate. and first published in 1893 (Ethnographische beschrijving van de west-en noordkust van Nederlandsch Nieuw-Guinea, Pl. XXXV, fig. 3). Usually, the sex of a korwar is not rendered as they were created for a specific person who was known to the carver of the statue. Here, a carefully delineated male and female couple sit on a bench, directly engaging with their descendants and supplicants. Fragments of shredded and disintegrating cloth add to their haunting visage. This couple remains to be further explained by an area specialist as to whether they are shrine figures of deified founders or memorial statues of the dead.
No introduction to korwar would be complete without the mention of one particularly important statue. Once secreted in a cave near Wagi village, Biak, this figure was originally acquired in situ by the world-famous marine biologist, Ben Tursch and his wife, Anita Chaberman (ca. 1970). This statue now proudly resides in FAMSF (2005). Prior to entering the museum, it was in the collection of John and Marsha Friede, whose assemblage of Papuan and New Guinea art is world-renowned (See: New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection, pp 562-563, 2005). This is a unique, truly archaic statue of great age that belongs to what has been described as a distinctive 'Type A' typology (See 'sculptural parallelism': Alpert: Tribal Arts Magazine: No. 33/winter 2003, An Early Spoon with Stylistic Connections to Eastern Indonesia, pp. 104-105). It belongs to an especially scarce (and often copied) class of early sculptures that have been described as being "Plastic, rounded and naturalistic in form and as being found over a wide area, rare and often extremely old." (Alpert: 2003). In conclusion, the ex-Tursch korwar is a cornerstone object; an archaic masterwork that is a fitting first introduction to korwar and to this region's veneration of the souls of the dead.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Ancestral image of the eldest son of the divine ancestor | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
1900-1930
Wood, cotton, pigment
Collected by J.C. van Erde
TM-573-39
2
Image of divine ancestor believed to represent Korano Wamurmi, the King of the Eastern Wind | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
1900-1930
Wood, cotton, pigment
Collected by J.C. van Erde
TM-573-36
3
Ancestral image of the concubine of the divine ancestor | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
1900-1930
Wood, cotton, pigment
Collected by J.C. van Erde
TM-573-38
4
Ancestral image of the adopted son of the divine ancestor containing a human skull | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
1900-1930
Human skull, wood, cotton, pigment
Collected by J.C. van Erde
TM-573-43
5
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
The British Museum
Before 1961
Cendrawasih Bay, West Papua
Wood, glass bead
Donated by Mrs F. Bonafede in 1961
Oc1961,04.1
6
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
Musée du quai Branly — Jacques Chirac
Wood, skull, glass
7
Ancestral figure of a standing person with a feathered headdress and an openwork shield | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Late 19th century-early 20th century
Doreh Bay, West Papua
Wood, bird feather, plant fiber, glass bead
WM-11653
8
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
The British Museum
Before 1865
Doreh Bay, West Papua
Wood, glass beads
Donated by C. J. Jessop in 1865
Oc1865,0503.3
9
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
Yale University Art Gallery
19th century
Cenderawasih Bay, West Papua
Wood, glass beads
Promised gift of Thomas Jaffe, B.A. 1971
ILE2016.13.6
10
Ancestor statue with an openwork shield and a smaller figure | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Late 19th century
Doreh Bay, West Papua
Wood, cotton, glass beads
TM-15-334
11
Ancestor figure with a shield of openwork carving | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Mid-19th to late 19th century
Northern Raja Ampat Islands, West Papua
Wood, glass beads
RV-929-690
12
Ancestor statue with an openwork shield and a smaller figure | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Mid-19th to late 19th century
Doberai Peninsula, West Papua
Wood, tree bark, glass beads
RV-929-692
13
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
Museum Nasional Indonesia
West Papua
Human skull, wood, cotton, glass beads, fiber
14
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
Museum Nasional Indonesia
West Papua
Human skull, wood
15
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Human skull, wood
16
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Cenderawasih Bay, West Papua
Late 19th century-early 20th century
Wood, human skull, glass beads
TM-43-1b
17
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
Ethnologisches Museum Berlin
Geelvinck Bay, West Papua
Wood, human skull
18
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Cenderwasih Bay, West Papua
Before 1930
Wood, human skull
TM-573-47
19
Ancestor statue decorated with standing human figures on both sides of the head | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Before 1951
Raja Ampat Islands, Papua Barat
Wood, glass beads
RV-2925-2
20
Ancestor image of a seated person with an elongated head and crossed arms | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
ca. 1900-1940
Cenderawasih Bay, West Papua
Wood
WM-28861
21
Ancestor Figure | Korwar
The British Museum
Before 1859
Doreh Bay, West Papua
Wood
Field collected by Alfred Russel Wallace
Donated by W.G. Wallace and Miss Wallace of Bournemouth in 1935
Oc1935,1014.1
22
Ancestor statue depicting two figures | Korwar
Brooklyn Museum
Early 20th century
Cenderawasih Bay, West Papua
Wood
Frank L. Babbott Fund
23
Ancestor statue depicting two seated figures | Korwar
Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Raja Ampat Islands, West Papua
Mid-19th century to late 19th century
Wood, cotton
RV-929-691
24
Seated Ancestor Figure | Korwar
de Young Museum
West Papua
Wood
Gift of Marcia and John Friede
2005.180.12
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the attributed museums.