Lot 305 Dα

The figure represented in this fine and rare dance wand is a "tubuan" dancer. As explained by Ingrid Heermann (in Conru, K. (Ed.) "Bismarck Archipelago Art", Milan, 2013, p.174), “the "tubuan" society is an almost public institution. At the end of the nineteenth century, in proceedings cloaked by secrecy and anonymity, the society took on legal functions and could punish misdeeds with death. Colonial authorities were asked to disband this society as well, and its rights were curtailed. But it was so deeply anchored in social life that it still exists today. Its spiritual sources are attributed to certain places where the "tubuan" (who is considered female) 'sleeps', until awakened among other means, by the playing of flutes, whereupon it 'gets up', wearing a dark-coloured circular mask with large painted eyes and a large dress made of leaves. This takes place at burials, for example, where it joins mourners and leaps onto the grave, and also plays an important role in the subsequent division and distribution