Post #409478 by Swanky on Tue, Sep 23, 2008 6:16 AM

On 2008-09-22 22:02, bigbrotiki wrote:
Ouuh, Ben is hurt that we are dissing his Luau! Hey, I am GLAD to be corrected and find out that that Ohio PNG stuff is just as authentic as it looks! I was just making an assumption, saying "PROBABLY made for sale art", because it is a fact that most PNG art available on the free market nowadays is. The whole question of authenticity and the inflated prices and the looting of the PNG people's art by whities at the turn of the century makes the whole point too complex to discuss here anyway, and as I said I believe tourist art is of equal value if made with mana.

The Luau will certainly benefit from your mana, Ben, but I also know what it started out as, and what it got paired down to since, and, most importantly, what it's namesake stood for.

I don't know about that Sven. Have you been to PNG? Who here has? There is no tourist market in PNG. Most of the places these pieces come from see 100-200 people a year come through with guides, max. One of the pieces pictured above is the only one in existence.

See the picture attached to it? That is from a museum where the natives recreated their men's house ceremony. That piece was created for the museum. The one standing in that shop is the real deal and the only one you will likely ever see.

Like the Native Americans, they create an object for a ceremony and may burn them after or just toss them aside.

There are small pieces done for fun or tourist trade, but for the most part, it is all real. That is the beauty of PNG. It remains relatively untouched and its culture intact.