In "suque," a member accumulated spiritual power for the next world by providing pigs to be ritually killed and ceremonially eaten. According to Layard, "Large pigs are killed with a spear, small pigs with wooden pig-killer or shouldered hammer, frequently decorated with carvings of the human face" (1928:150). When a recipient of sacrificial pigs was from another village, the animals might only be symbolically killed at the ceremony by a touch of a ritual pig club or spear. The symbolically killed pigs would later be slaughtered and ceremonially eaten in the other village (Ibid.) This old ritual implement, with deeply carved mask-like faces, retains traces of red pigment and surface encrustation. The handle has a glossy patina from much use. The back of the handle portion is cut with two mask-like faces oriented upward and downward. The top portion of the club has two upward-projecting open apexes with serrated edges and medial ridges; these are stylized representations of pig jaws. The janiform representation of the human face occurred frequently on clubs, implements, and ceremonial accessories and suggests the vigilance of multi-dimensional vision. Objects carved with multiple faces are common in Malekula and may also indicate increasing levels of suque rank, as they do on house posts and other ceremonial carvings (Speiser 1991 [1923]:355). Speiser, however, wrote, "Whether the number of faces on the clubs is determined by the rank of the sacrificer is not certain." (Ibid.) For a ritual pig club carved with janiform faces and a ritual adze carved with diamond-shaped janus heads terminating in a similar open-jawed element, see Guiart (1963:239, pl. 217-8). For a ritual adze also with janiform heads surmounted by the upward pointed open jaws enclosing a central tongue-like projection, see Speiser (1991 [1923]: pl. 85, no. 8). See Guiart, Jean. 1963. The Arts of the South Pacific, trans. Anthony Christie. New York: Golden Press. Layard, J.W. 1928. "Degree-Taking Rites in South West Bay, Malekula," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 28: 139-223. Speiser, Felix. 1991 [1923] Ethnology of Vanuatu: An Early Twentieth Century Study, trans. D.Q. Stephenson. Bathurst, Australia: Crawford House Press
Published: Hurst, Norman. 1997. Power and Prestige: The Arts of Island Melanesia and the Polynesian Outliers. Cambridge: Hurst Gallery. (Cat. No. 38)