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Lot 702
Deity figure dema
Estimated Value:
500 € - 800 €
Result:
incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
Sepik region, Papua New Guinea, Sepik (Upper Sepik)H,. 15,8 cm
Small figure from the upper Sepik, attributable to the Yatmul culture. The standing figure on a rudimentary base is carved from medium-hard wood and has a slightly inclined posture. It has a pronounced perforated nose (suggestive of the nose peg jewellery of the initiated men). The surface is painted with reddish colour, the incised recesses accentuated with lime paint. Such figures represent dema deities who were responsible for the creation of crops, usually by sacrificing or having to sacrifice their lives or bodies, which then gave rise to the crops (especially the yam tuber, taro and the coconut palm). The dema principle is based on a cycle of myths of origin that has far-reaching equivalents in arable cultures around the world. Wood-
Formerly from an important Süd German private collection, collected since 1975
Old label inscribed in blue ink before 1960: 57 New Guinea
A dema deity is a divine primeval being that dwells in living beings or objects and from whose body parts new, vital things are created when it is killed. These are mostly useful plants. The origin of the idea is apparently the fact that tuber fruits have to be cut up and buried in order to grow new fruits from them, and the observation that new life grows from death (organic matter). The term was introduced by Adolf Ellegard Jensen (1899-1965) - the most important representative of early cultural morphology alongside Leo Frobenius (1873-1938). The word dema comes from the language and culture of the Marind-Anim in Süd-New Guinea.
