A Fine Old Massim Pig Carving Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea

A Fine Old Massim Pig Carving Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea

This stylized carved figure of a Pig is from the Massim culture in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.

Pigs were probably introduced from SE Asia and there is some evidence that they may have been introduced as long ago as 10,000 years BP. Austronesian speakers seem to have introduced pigs of a different kind at some later time. Pigs have always been of social and political, as well as economic, importance. Wild pigs are hunted for food. Domestic pigs are slaughtered for food when other sources of protein are unavailable but mostly kept for important ceremonial occasions, either within a village or in exchange arrangements with neighboring groups. Pigs are often used in dowry payments by a young man’s family to the bride’s family.

Some ancient carvings of pigs are known from the Milne Bay province, and one in the Jolika collection of New Guinea Art at the De Young Fine Art Museum in San Francisco is carbon-dated to an early date.

Provenance: Nora Heysen Collection (1911-2003) Heysen was a famous Australian artist and was an official war artist in New Guinea during WW2.  This is when she would have acquired this carving along with many others that I had the chance to buy from her brother after she passed away.

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