The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 18, 2024
Grade Society Figure
c. 1930
Location: not on view
Description
In the islands of Vanuatu, communities carved large statutes to honor ancestors. The figures were often erected near men's-society houses, in conjunction with celebrations marking an individual's attainment of a new rank or grade. Carved from the trunks of fernwood trees, the ancestor statues were originally covered with mud plaster and painted with many colors. The large heads typical of these sculptures symbolize the ancestors' spiritual power, or "mana".- Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).
- {{cite web|title=Grade Society Figure|url=false|author=|year=c. 1930|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1971.272