Side-blown trumpet
Date1950-1970 ca.
Place MadeKapriman Village, Blackwater River, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea, Asia
Serial No.None
SignedNoneMarkingsNone
DescriptionDark-stained wood, carved with a knife, top with crocodile's head, body with churingas, mouthhole irregular.
The crocodile is an important, sacred figure for many groups in the Sepik River Region, frequently appearing in mythology and art. For example, the Iatmul people tell a creation story in which the upper jaw of the crocodile became the heavens and the lower jaw became the earth. The crocodile is also a totemic ancestor for many groups. During initiation ceremonies, a boy undergoes a rite of passage in which his skin is cut so that the scars resemble crocodile skin. Churingas are sacred objects (stones or oval-shaped wood), believed to represent the spiritual double of a living person or the embodiment of the spirit of an ancestor.
DimensionsHeight: 559 mm
Effective tube length: ca. 343 mm
Mouthhole diameter: ca. 28 mm
Bell diameter: ca. 70 mm
ProvenancePurchased in 1997 from New Guinea Primitive Arts, Sydney, Australia.
Published ReferencesKlaus, Sabine Katharina. Trumpets and Other High Brass: A History Inspired by the Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection. Volume 1: Instruments of the Single Harmonic Series (Vermillion, SD: National Music Museum, 2012), pp. 22, 276.
Credit LineJoe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Object number07280
On View
Not on view
1900 ca.
1950-1970 ca.
1950-1975 ca.
1990