Nagaland (North-East India)
Wood
Female seated figure adorned with red and yellow glass bead necklaces. Carved from solid trunks of trees, the solemn expressions of these wood sculptures sometimes heightened by cowrie shells, bead necklaces or human and animal hair, combined with the blunt tubular carving on dark wood give these Naga figures a silent though persuasive identity.
A key fixture in nearly all Naga settlements was the Morung, or Men’s House, which served as something of a community center. It was usually the biggest and most beautifully furnished building in a village, spacious and decorated with ornate carvings. Numerous wooden sculptures decorated the walls and posts of the farthest end of the innermost space of the Morung. They expressed the narrative traditions of the Naga. Wooden sculpture such as this, depicting would be posted near the walls of the Morung, were not uncommon and thought to relate to fertility.
The Naga are a group of culturally and linguistically linked tribes who live in the mountainous regions of northeastern India and northwestern Burma (Myanmar). As headhunters, they were feared and avoided by their neighbours, allowing them to develop a distinctive material culture—in which objects they created are of impressive aesthetic value and possess great symbolic importance to the community—and a complex system of norms and taboos.
Size (cms): 47.5(H) x 16(W) x 8(D)
Size (inches): 18.5(H) x 6.5(W) x 3(D)
