Grade society figure from Ambrym Island, Vanuatu -carved fernwood. On metal stand. Provenance: Private New Jersey Collection; Merton Simpson, New York.Size: 74'' x 12'' x 19.5'' (188 x 30 x 50 cm). Height on Stand: 76" (193 cm). Much of the art of central and northern Vanuatu in the southwest Pacific is associated with grade rituals, a hierarchical series of initiations, each of which confers successively greater religious and political authority during life and in the realm of the dead. In some areas, individuals who have reached the highest grades are considered the living dead, having already achieved the status of ancestors.

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