Pottery
Production date
Unknown
Country
Papua New Guinea
State/Province
East Sepik
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Object detail
Description
Smoking Pot, LAMANA: fish, earthenware, round base, globular body, everted rim, incised geometric decoration below rim. Body pierced with holes; cane handle.
Classification
INDIGENOUS CULTURES Melanesian & South Sea Islander pottery
Maker
Production date
Unknown
Production place
Measurements
H260 x Dia.290 mm
Media/Materials description
Earthenware, cane
History and use
The lamana is a vessel unique to the Yaut River area of the Sepik. Used for smoking meat or fish, the pot is distinguished by small perforations along the lower half of vessel, leaving the base intact.
Globular, with a neck, restricted mouth and everted rim, the pot is sometimes decorated along the upper-half by an informal floral design. The pot is suspended over the fire from a cane handle attached by two holes to the neck.
Both men and women make pots but each has a high degree of specialisation. Men collect the clay and women prepare the clay. Women work the functional vessels which are made by coiling, while men make ritual objects. However, men will decorate certain functional vessels, such as the ceramic hearth.
Pots are never made when a man of important social status has passed away. It can be many months before manufacture can resume, following funeral and mourning rites.
All Yaul pots are started in a similar manner. A cone shape is built up with coils, with fingers smoothing out the inside, from top to base, with further shaping and smoothing with a piece of coconut. The cone shape is then transferred to a banana leaf-covered grass ring. The walls of the pot are then extended outward with a smooth piece of wet coconut shell which is rubbed on the inside while the pot is supported on the outside with the other hand.
It should be noted that any excess clay is actually cut away from the walls of the pot, as opposed to the more widespread method of thinning the walls with the hands or with beating. The pots are then allowed to dry until they become firm enough to support the addition of further coils. When appropriately shaped and sufficiently dried, decoration is then applied with a bamboo implement. Firing occurs after the pots have been left to dry for another two to three days.
Uploaded to the Web 27 May 2011.
Globular, with a neck, restricted mouth and everted rim, the pot is sometimes decorated along the upper-half by an informal floral design. The pot is suspended over the fire from a cane handle attached by two holes to the neck.
Both men and women make pots but each has a high degree of specialisation. Men collect the clay and women prepare the clay. Women work the functional vessels which are made by coiling, while men make ritual objects. However, men will decorate certain functional vessels, such as the ceramic hearth.
Pots are never made when a man of important social status has passed away. It can be many months before manufacture can resume, following funeral and mourning rites.
All Yaul pots are started in a similar manner. A cone shape is built up with coils, with fingers smoothing out the inside, from top to base, with further shaping and smoothing with a piece of coconut. The cone shape is then transferred to a banana leaf-covered grass ring. The walls of the pot are then extended outward with a smooth piece of wet coconut shell which is rubbed on the inside while the pot is supported on the outside with the other hand.
It should be noted that any excess clay is actually cut away from the walls of the pot, as opposed to the more widespread method of thinning the walls with the hands or with beating. The pots are then allowed to dry until they become firm enough to support the addition of further coils. When appropriately shaped and sufficiently dried, decoration is then applied with a bamboo implement. Firing occurs after the pots have been left to dry for another two to three days.
Uploaded to the Web 27 May 2011.
Registration number
E10781
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