According to Smidt (2006), drums formed an important link between the living and the ancestors during times of feasting and other ceremonial occasions: “The ancestral voices were communicated through the sound of drums when these were played by men during feasts and ceremonies, often in accompaniment of dance, for example, in honour of a first-born son of a chief or to celebrate a successful turtle catch.”

REFERENCES

Smidt, Dirk. “Cat. 164.” In Shadows of New Guinea: Art from the Great Island of Oceania

Oceania in the Barbier-Mueller Collections, edited by Philippe Peltier, Floriane

Morin, and Joshua A. Bell, 440. Paris: Somogy, 2006.