Context (Amendments / updates)
Full-length male figure on 2-pronged hook base. Ovoid head with fine black on white face painting. Conus shell eye inlay. Double-pierced ear lugs with knotted string loop through piercing in right ear and rattan earring and bivalve shell ear ornament through other ear. Tassled twine loop round neck. Bulbous nose and crescent mouth. Distinct red coloured shoulder area with white curves painted round nipple knobs. Elbows slightly bent, hands on hips. White on black curved design around navel. Tiny penis. Very large triangular buttocks at rear. Double tasseld twine loop round hips and both wrists, and both ankles. White circles painted round knee knobs. Feet rest on hook base, 5 toes for each. Colours black, red and white. Tiny knobs at wrists. Large lug at back of neck has cane loop through it. Fur band missing from head. Probably made in Tshambuli
Event Date
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Original accession notes: "Male figure standing on base with two vertical spikes. It is ornamented with an opossum fur band round the head, rattan and shell ear rings and wears twisted fibre round neck, wrists, waist and ankles. Initiatory marks on breasts and navel are represented in white paint which also decorated the tip of the penis and the knees."
Event Date 1933
Author: rachel hand

Context (Field collection)
Collected by English anthropologist Gregory Bateson (1904– 1980) during his fieldwork amongst the Iatmul of the Middle Sepik from February 1929 to March 1930 and from February 1932 to the spring of 1933
Event Date 1933
Author: rachel hand

Context (Related Documents)
Catalogue card notes: Lent to International Surrealist Exhibition, 1936.
Event Date 1936
Author: rachel hand

Context (References)
Featured in the Oceania section in the exhibition catalogue, Anon (1936). International Surrealist Exhibition Thursday, June 11th- Saturday, 4th July 1936 (London: New Burlington Galleries, Burlington Gardens), p. 29.
Possibly No. 371, 'Male figure. Mandated territory New Guinea'
Event Date 1936
Author: rachel hand

Context (Display)
Exhibited: Lent to the International Surrealist Exhibition, New Burlington Galleries, Burlington Gardens, London, 11 June- 4th July 1936
Event Date 1936
Author: rachel hand

Context (Display)
On display in the Maudslay Hall, CUMAA, in the Papua New Guinea Sepik/Gregory Bateson case (no number) from 1990- 28 November 2017
Event Date 1990
Author: rachel hand

Context (Analysis)
Decorative motifs: Figure (male): face-painting 4:2(c); headtop (scalloped2); forehead (barline2); forehead (ovals1); eyes (slantup4); nose (club1); ears (arcs6); cheeks (ovals3); mouth (oval6); chin (curved1); neck (short); bust (sleeves6); belly (domed); genitals (male1); legs (straight); feet (ankles+5toes); body knobs (nipples); body knobs (navel); body knobs (knees); body marks (breasts); body marks (navel).

Event Date 1995
Author: maa

Context (References)
For further details on motifs see Lovelace " Bateson Project" , Vol. I.

Event Date 1995
Author: rachel hand

Context (References)
The Gregory Bateson collection was catalogued by Antonia Lovelace, during 1984-1995. The Bateson documentation project resulted in a six-volume printout, a typescript in ring-binders with interleaved object photographs and sketches and some of Bateson’s field photographs. The partly printed collation was deposited IN MAA in 1995 and remains largely unpublished

Event Date 1995
Author: rachel hand

Context (Related Documents)
Museum record photograph: F4,14 Basel Museum fur Volkerkunde numerical code: 8.1.1.;
Event Date 1996
Author: rachel hand

Context (CMS Context)
Exhibited: On display in the Papua New Guinea Sepik, Maudslay Hall, from 1990. Display label notes' 4. Supension Hook: Initiatory keloids represented by white paint. Iatmul (imported from Chambri). Middle Sepik, Papua New Guinea. Bateson Collection 1935.76'
Event Date 5/2/2013
Author: Shuai Li