Susanne Kuchler
Malanggan: Art, Memory and Sacrifice.
Berg, 2002. Materializing Cultures series. 185973622X xii/212 pages.
Softcover volume, measuring approximately 6.25" x 9.5", is like new.
"Malanggan are the funerary effigies of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, which can be found in ethnographic museums throughout the world. Malanggan is also the generic name of a funerary ritual that culminates in the production of effigies, their dramatic revelation, and their symbolic "death" - the remains of an effigy, which may have taken more than 3 months to prepare, are usually left to decompose, or are sold to collectors. In this book Susanne Kuechler offers more than just an ethnography of malanggan - she proposes a new interpretation of these enigmatic figures, and considers the role that they play in New Ireland ritual and exchange. She also provides a fascinating discussion of memory and "likeness", and the role of visual resemblance in the forging of connections between the world of the living and that of the dead."