1931.86.262

Collection type

Object

Description

Bundle of palm leaves dyed red. [LM 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 21/9/2005]

Geographical reference

Papua New Guinea

Oceania > Melanesia > Papua New Guinea

Bougainville Konua

Person

Field collector Beatrice Mary Blackwood

PRM source Beatrice Mary Blackwood

Date / Period

Date made: Before 10/1930

Date collected

By October 1930

Acquisition information

Donated: 1931

Materials and processes

Material Palm Leaf Plant, Material Pigment, Process Dyed

Dimensions

Length: max 670 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1931.86.262 Other numbers: Blackwood number 261

Research and responses

Excerpt from Beatrice Blackwood's notes on Upis: 'These hats are worn by adolescent boys in North Bougainville. They used to be worn in Buka also but there have been discontinued. They are put on at the age of 7 or 8 (approximately) with elaborate ceremony/which takes place in the bush and is tambu to women. From this time onwards the boy's hair may not be cut, but is pushed up inside the hat. He may never be seen wihtout it, except in the privacy of the boy's houses (tobar), where he must sleep. He may not enter any house in which a woman lives, not even that of his own mother. There are numerous other restrictions, some of which are removed after a second ceremony (watawutch), which takes place at the discretion of the chief, when there is enough food. The final ceremony (wasipsip) at which the hair is cut and the upi finally taken off and burnt, may be deferred till the youth is seventeen or eighteen years old. After this he may live with his wife, and is a fully fledged member of the community. The Upi is made of the leaves of a small palm (win) which is plentiful in the bush. The leaves are dried in the sun, and then flattened out, and fixed upon a basis of cane. For cermonial use a pattern is cut out of some of these leaves dyed red, and red leaves are also introduced into the plain upis worn on ordinary days. The dye is made of the bark of one tree and the root of another. The latter is known to all the people, but the former is the secret property of the inland tribes, from whom the red leaves are brought by the coast tribes. It acts as a mordant, apparently, since the dye obtained by using the root alone, though effective at first, fades rapidly. The shape differs a little in various localities. The patterns are traditional.' Photographs: 'palm from which upis are made'; 'ceremonial upis'; 'boys wearing upis'; boy with upi removed.' [GI 29/11/2001]

Search terms: Clothing Headgear, Ritual and Ceremonial, Plant, Specimen, Status