File:WLANL - MicheleLovesArt - Tropenmuseum - Sepik Redenaarsstoel.jpg

Nederlands: Sepik Redenaarsstoelen (2670-192A/2670-193/2670-194)

Ceremoniële- of 'redenaarsstoel' met de voorstelling van 'Wagen', de belangrijkste geest van de gemeenschap en bovendien van de clan op wiens grond het mannenhuis was gebouwd. De stoel stond in het midden van het mannenhuis en was het centrum van clanvergaderingen. De sprekers zetten hun argumenten kracht bij door de zitting te bestrijken met bundels bladeren. Soms werden er offers op gezet. Op de stoel werd nooit gezeten.

---

“Orator” stools or teket such as this are among some of the rarer items of the Middle Sepik culture, as there was usually only one appearing inside each village’s Tambaran men’s house, compared to the more abundantly produced shields or hook figures. According to Greub, 1985, in every men’s ceremonial house the orator stool stood at the center of the house, near the central post, and thus occupied an extremely important physical and spiritual position. It was a very important sculpture as it served to be the repository of the highest spirit of the community, the “wagen” spirit, and of the chief spirit of the specific clan of the ceremonial house it appeared in. Each orator stool was not constantly alive with these elevated spirits but rather served as temporary abodes. The wagen spirits were summoned and the orator stool was enlivened by particular ceremonies, and thus the house would be activated. All decisions concerning the village had to be discussed before the ceremonial chair, when a man spoke to the house, he would stand beside the chair and as he presented each idea he would place a coconut leaf upon the seat, or beat the seat with each argument in order to emphasize his ideas or opinions. Therefore, the stool was the center of village political life.