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bag, bilum
Unknown
Museum of Ethnography
Stockholm, Sweden
Flätad av växtfibersnören. Framsidan är täckt av blåsvarta fjädrar. Över mitten går ett band av tätt flätade snören där rader av svinbetar är fästade. Prydes ytterligare nedtill av en fjädervippa.
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Details
- Title: bag, bilum
- Creator: Unknown
- Location Created: Sepik river, Papua Nya Guinea [?]
- Physical Dimensions: 80 cm, 70 cm
- External Link: Link to source
- Text till utställningen Avian Allies: Usually made by women, a bilum is a netbag made from vegetable fibre, wool or yarn that are used in daily life to carry personal possessions, tools, produce, even babies. Feather bilums have feathers from different birds attached to one side of the bag. These feathers have been added in seclusion by males undergoing initiation rites. Worn on the back with the feather side facing out, the contents of the bilum, ritual objects associated with male initiation, were hidden from view. There are various classes of feather bilum, each associated with a different level of initiation. The highest stage of initiation was associated with the cassowary bird. The feathers that decorate this bilum possibly came from an eagle. The inclusion of many pig tusks suggests that the owner of this bilum was of an advanced level of initiation.
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