Fashion is a varied and subjective thing. What looked good 30 years ago is not necessarily considered beautiful today (though often trends come back to haunt us – I am looking at you, 1990s…). But today I am not looking at the fashion trends of […]
All posts tagged: Papua New Guinea

A suggestion for the sunny days: New Guinean fashion
After the coldest spring in ages, Denmark is now experiencing its warmest May since the Danish Meteorological Institute began recording temperatures back in the 1800s. I do not think I am the only one who is slightly confused. And sweaty… So today, I have dived […]

The colours of autumn: An ethnographic selection
What does a weaved bag and a skirt from Dutch New Guinea, a Burmese man’s hat, a mask from Australian New Guinea, an ancestor skull from New Guinea, a rice sieve from Malaysia, a pair of Indonesian sandals, a Qatari gold earring, and a Latin […]

Talking to the dead: The ’Bridge Phone’
Imagine being able to talk to your dead loved ones. No, this is not a rhetorical question; try to imagine actually being able to answer your mobile phone and talking to your dead husband, mother, wife, or child at the other end of the line. […]

Nuts about love?
You know the feeling. The feeling of being young and in love. Life is golden sunshine and you want to embrace the whole world and all living creatures in it. Beauty pervades everything. You cannot think clearly – and you don’t care! All you think […]

Size matters: Yams mask from Papua New Guinea
Size matters… at least when it comes to yams, the edible tubers grown by the Abelam people in Paupa New Guinea, where they can grow to be several meters long. Among the Abelam, the cultivating and displaying of yams is of great importance to a […]

Garamut Slit-Drum – Baluan Island
Reite people on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea describe a large ceremonial drum (a garamut) as a man. In its construction, a garamut is the focus of a process which brings forth a form of social relations, as well as the object […]

Tetepeku – Papua New Guinea
Tetepeku – one of the rare female ancestor figures from Papua New Guinea, of great importance to the Abelam people of Wosera. As a central part of male initiation rites, the novice is to crawl between the legs of Tetepeku, placed inside the ceremonial house, haus tambaran. […]

Spirit Chair – Papua New Guinea
So, a chair is basically something to sit on, right? Well actually, there is so much more to chairs than just that. There’s a chair for every occasion, but apart from the myriad different everyday chairs you’ll find around the world, you’ll also find more […]

Bisj Poles – Papua New Guinea
You might be familiar with the colourful totem poles of Native Americans, with carved out masks and animals – but have you ever seen a Papua New Guinean bisj pole like the ones here? Collected by Aksel Bojsen-Møller in 1955, these poles tell the story of an old […]

Malangan – Papua New Guinea
Think of someone you used to know. Someone not here anymore. What do you see? A mask-like figure with animal features and a mohawk? Probably not. But if you were from the province of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea, it might not be that […]

Yupini – Papua New Guinea
Almost resembling a funky dancer expressing himself in the light of the disco ball, perplexed and surprised by his own moves, we were amused to learn that this little fella is actually connected to the afterlife of the Enga people of Papua New Guinea in […]