Yangoru Boiken Talipun Bride Price-New Guinea Art-Oceanic Art
Of the seemingly endless variety of Yangoru Boiken talipun bride price objects there is a small subset with vestigial arms sprouting from the sides of the face. On this one the hands are oddly paddled shaped—the spirit face’s expression seems to convey the bewilderment of being stuck with useless hands. What makes this example unique among this small corpus is the addition of the wooden bird jutting forward above the face. Judging from the polish and thinness of the green turban seashell this talipun would be considered a female “hauri” example. It dates to the early 20th century, is 21 ½” (54.6 cm) in height.