Pile elements (bis, bisj, mbis)

Description:

New Guinea, West, Irian Jaya, Casuarina, Indonesia / Melanesia (cross-border). Asmat culture, 20th cent.
L. 215 cm
Collection of 6 bisj elements that belong to bisj stables. Carved and coloured in openwork geometric and spiral motifs. The bisj poles, which are up to 12 metres high, are used in ceremonies dedicated to the deceased. Each pole is highly individualised and the design allows the artist a high degree of creative freedom. The flag-like elements are held by a mostly male ancestor figure and symbolise the path to the upper world through the rites de passage for the dead (burial rituals). Death is usually caused by hostile flames. Therefore, the trees used (mangroves) are symbolically hunted and felled, a process that is equated with traditional headhunting. Mangrove wood, polychrome coloured.
From an important Süd German private collection, collected from 1975 onwards
The ancestor stake festival, also known as (m)bis pokumbur or emak cem pokmuis a cyclically celebrated Asmat ritual, The ancestor stake festival, also known as the mbis festival, is based on the Asmat idea that harmony in the village is seriously disturbed if the villagers do not fulfil their obligations;The Asmat believe that harmony in the village will be seriously disrupted if the villagers do not fulfil their obligations to perform ritual acts. The aim is also to settle disputes and drive out disease. ÄSimilar to the mask festival of the Asmat, the preparations for the festival last for several months. They consist of a large number of ceremonies, the main purpose of which is to free the deceased who have been banished to an "intermediate world" (ainamipits) due to misdemeanours (including headhunting until well into the 20th century) so that they can enter the realm of the ancestor. The missed opportunity to call out the names of the victims after headhunting ceremonies on the occasion of the firauwi festival was considered reprehensible. It was also reprehensible for a warrior to become the victim of a headhunt or to fall prey to black magic. As there is only a gradual distance between the living and the recently deceased, it is possible for people to maintain active communication between the worlds (this world and the intermediate world). The family clans therefore commemorate their deceased by commissioning professional artists to carve an ancestor pole. The highlight of the ancestor stake festival is the calling out of the names of those immortalised in the stake. In this ritual of ensouling, the dead souls incarnate in their carved images and are once again present in the flesh in their village. If the carved figure is given the name of a person who is still alive, this would result in earthly death and the transfer of their soul into the wooden figure. After the festival, the family takes their stake to the private sagogründe. There, the deceased are emphatically invited to enter the realm of the ancestors. The relatives destroy the stakes with an axe to prevent the spirits from returning and cover them with leaves. Therefore, often only the flag-like elements are preserved (as presented here) - Traces of age