Asmat Shields, Papua (Irian Jaya), Indonesia

The Asmat inhabit a vast swamp on the south coast of the island of New Guinea in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. Until recently, their culture focused on warfare and headhunting. Shields (jamasj) are protection from both the physical and spiritual powers of the enemy. The Christian missions and the Indonesian government have ended overt tribal warfare, but raids still occur in remote areas. Shield motifs, and the ancestor for whom a shield is named, give its owner power. Many designs are headhunting symbols.

Figure 1: Asmat war shield collected near Basim Village, Irian Jaya, Indonesia decorated with cuscus (tree kangaroo) tail designs. (Area A) This area is the most accessible, the closest to the coastal government administrative center of Agats, so the shields are frequently seen in collections.

Figure 2: Asmat war shield collected in Sawa-Erma Villages, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. (Area B) The head section is filigreed into two ancestor figures. The largest designs on the body are tar, flying fox/fruit bat motifs, the smaller ones include possum tails and two ancestor figures on the right top and bottom.

Tobias Schneebaum's book, Asmat Images, divides Asmat shields into four major stylistic types:

• "Those of Area A are rectangular in shape, with an ancestor figure at the top, phallic in formation...."
• "Area B shields are wider, more oval, with a clearly separated head section most often called the rayfish, visi, but sometimes referred to as a turtle, mbu, or a cassowary, pi. The entire shape of the shield is that of a phallus."
• "Area C has the largest shields, the top coming to a point, the bottom flat. The top area is an abstracted human head, with the central hour-glass form being the forehead, the sides the cheeks."
• "Area D shields are similar to those of Area C and may be mistaken from them at times. However, the head often has a clear-cut, incised eyes and nose and a completely different style of motifs."

Figure 3: Asmat war shield collected at Komasjma Village, Irian Jaya, Indonesia, incised with an unusual floral motif. (Area C).

Old Asmat shields were roughed out with stone tools and the fine relief detailing finished with cassowary bone chisels or shell tools. The coastal people make chisels from nails salvaged from driftwood and have apparently been doing this for a long time. We found that the backs of many shields from Areas C and D are still shaped with the distinctive dish-shaped cuts of stone tools, even though most carvers have steel tools and use them to carve the fronts and designs. On the coast, shields are made from the lightweight prop roots of mangrove trees, but inland a harder wood is used. Most shields are large, from roughly 5 to 6 feet tall (170 - 200 cm), although smaller ones are made, especially for sale.

The white color comes from burned and powdered mussel shells on the coast or, farther inland, from kaolin clays. Yellow comes from clay traded out from the foothills behind the Asmat swamp. When burned it turns into the red colors. Black comes from crushed charcoal. All colors have magical qualities and represent different aspects of the Asmat world, both seen and unseen. Red is the color of beauty and power. The Asmat say that red painted around the eyes "imitates the color around the eyes of a black king cockatoo when angry and gives a man a fearsome look."

Figure 4: Asmat war shield collected on the Braza River, Irian Jaya, Indonesia. The design is probably a fish pattern, enam. (Area D)

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Photographs, text and maps copyright © Carolyn Leigh, 1996-2006. All rights reserved. Last modified: Thursday, January 5, 2006
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Artifacts on this site are collected in the field by my husband, Ron Perry. I take the photographs, do the html, text and maps. More background in Who We Are. Art-Pacific has been on the WWW since 1996. We hope you enjoy our New Guinea tribal art and Indonesian folk art as much as we do. Carolyn Leigh, P.O. Box 85284,Tucson, AZ 85754-5284 USA, Art-Pacific at http://www.art-pacific.com/