Yupin (male fertility figure)

This is a Yupin, a fertility figure made from basket work by the Enga people of the Western Highlands in Papua New Guinea.

Roger Neich, former ethnologist at the National Museum of New Zealand (Te Papa’s predecessor) documented the significance of Yupin figures among the Enga people and published an article on his findings. It includes a full account of the Yupin written by Rev. H.M. Reah, a missionary who was based in the Western Highlands in the 1960s.

Significance

This Yupin was given to Rev. Reah in 1960 by a man from Wambli (spelt ‘Wabi’ in Enga). Wambli is not a village) but a group of houses, situated two or three miles from the Apostolic Mission Station at the Laiagam. He writes,

“The man who handed the figure over was a member of the Pyaini clan. Each figure was in the care of one (or maybe two) men called in Pidgin English “poison man”. Each clan had a “spirit”? house where amongst other things were stone carvings. Nearby, but well hidden was one of these basketwork figures…All Yupins were male figures…The ceremonies associated with these figures were still carried on by a very small section of Wambli, but by and large it was fast decaying as the natives believed in the superior message of Christianity.”(1)

Reah goes on to describe how among the Enga, the spirits of their departed dead resided in the Yupin figure, however, it was not a representation of a god.  It was a figure housing the peoples nearest ancestral spirits that they would offer presentations of pork and other food stuffs to protect their food resources and the general wellbeing of the community. People would refer to Yupin in times of drought, or when children were sick.

“Yupins were supposed to punish people for misdeeds and for ignoring good tribal habits. For instance it was a major crime for any person to pollute drinking water. The keepers received all kinds of rewards or pay from the people, such as pigs, axes, mother of pearl shells etc.”(2)

Materials and construction

Neich describes this Yupin as having the form of a realistic male human image with rounded body and both arms outstretched. A cassowary feather headdress and belt of plaited cord adorn the figure, much in the manner of dress of a male adult Enga. Facial features are indicated by a slightly protruding, long, narrow nose, a variation in the weaving pattern for the eyes, and an oval aperture for the mouth. No ears are present, but a rought cane loop has been inserted at the site of the right ear.

The arms have been fashioned separately, in a different weave from the body, and attached later. They are supported by a stick running transversely through the shoulders. On the left is a realistic hand with four fingers, while the right arm ends intentionally in a blunt stump.

The body, built up by a coiling technique, is round and hollow with no internal framework, the cane itself being very stiff and hard. In the weave, coarse (c 5mm) split and whole canes run horizontally and are tied by slightly finer, interlooped cane runners. The natural colour of the cane was probably reddish-brown, but this has been largely disguised by layers of soot, grease and pigment, particularly on the front.

The top of the head is flattened, meeting the sides in a sharp edge. Above this, the large (c 20cm high) cassowary feather headdress is loosely tied to the flat head. Each feather is woven separately into the plaited string cap which gives shape to the headdress. Set on the headdress is a stick (36cm long) covered with small red, green, blue and black parakeet feathers arranged in bands of colour and ending in two black feathers whose vanes have been cut away in alternate sections.

Deposits of soot and grease have given the figure a uniform black colour. In some areas, this soot and grease forms a thick coated paste in the weave. Over this, black (charcoal), white (lime), red (roasted powdered clay), yellow (unroasted clay), pigments have been painted in a definite pattern, notably, five white vertical stripes evenly spaced around the sides and back of the head, a white ring around the neck, white, red and yellow outlining of the face, yellow and red across the chest, a red stripe down the centre of the stomach, a red colouring of the penis, and white areas on the front of both legs.

Acquisition History

This Yupin was collected in 1960 by Apostolic Church Missionary, Rev. H. M. Reah, who  went on to live at Laiagam among the Yandapu Enga for about ten years. It was presented  to the museum on 1 May 1969 by Rev M.Gaulton of the Apostolic Church, Miramar, Wellington.

References

 1. Neich, Roger. 1975. Basketwork fertility figures from the Western Enga and nearby groups, Western and Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. Records. 1 (2): 33-62. p.34

2. Ibid. p.36