"Coaxing the Spirits to Dance" explores the relationship between social life and artistic expression since the nineteenth century in one of the most important art-producing regions of Papua New Guinea. It includes a stunning presentation of hand-carved and hand-painted ancestor boards, masks, drums, skull racks, and personal items. Each society on the Papuan Gulf had its own elaborate traditions of carved, painted, or decorated masks, boards, and hand drums that filled the men's longhouses for use in dances and performances. Today these art objects offer a glimpse into the varied cosmologies and ritual lives of these surprisingly diverse societies before they were changed significantly through their contact with the West.
- ISBN10 094472230X
- ISBN13 9780944722305
- Publish Date 24 April 2006
- Publish Status Out of Stock
- Out of Print 13 July 2009
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Washington Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 128
- Language English