Knife with Sheath

Kodi people, Sumba, Indonesia, early 20th c.

Carved wood, steel, and rattan

14.5” h x 3” w (36.83 x 7.62 cm)

SOLD

 
 

A rare and rather delightful knife from the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba. The knife, equipped with a male figure, fits into a sheath carved with the open-legged body of a woman—thus giving quite explicit reference to notions of sexual dualism and male-female complementarity ubiquitous in Kodi society and the wider Austronesian-speaking world.