Post #497920 by Babalu on Tue, Dec 8, 2009 8:18 AM

I've always loved this New Guinea inspired mug. I hope you bring in a record price for it Matt. It looks to be in excellent condition.

I've been doing a little research on New Guinea lately...in particular the flat, deep-jungled areas on the south west side of New Guinea where up until the late 1950's (yes, the 1950's and into the 60's in some areas) a huge part of the peoples way of life was based on, revenge, the taking of heads, and cannibalism. The peoples believed that men came from trees originally, hence the spiritual connection to trees. The peoples see the birds, the flying fruit bats, and other animals eating the fruit from the trees...like head hunting...see the connection? Praying mantis' were also depicted quite a bit. The female eats the head of the male after sex, etc, etc...

This is the reason that this bird imagery was used on various carvings from New Guinea...the Poly Pop artists that saw this imagery...well, you know the story...