|
|
We ship internationally, we group ship multiple purchases to save you money, if you have any questions, email cheetahdmr@aol.com
All our handcrafted or rare collector items come with pages and pages of research, about provenance, with history of the tribes and photos as well, depending on item and whenever possible.
You are buying the large drop pectoral ornament seen on pictures 1, 3, 5 and 7. We have 3 of those available seen on 8th picture here and all listed, they are all authentic pieces collected from the natives which you can see wearing them on the additinal photos.This is a scarce original Tribal Pectoral Necklace called Kina after the large Kina Mother of pearl tear drop shell pendant that adorns it. We collected it in the tribe’s village. Mounted on a Seed bead necklace.
Kinas, mother of pearl necklaces, are rare treasures from Papua and a sign of wealth and prosperity and were worn either alone or in multiples for special celebrations when warriors would wear a kina shell pectoral necklace as the focal point of their dress.These pectoral ornaments are made of mother of pearl drop pieces (the gold-lipped pearl shell: Pinctada maximums, cut into shapes and called kina). Some Kina Shells are hanging from a simple cord with pulled up seed capsules, or just a simple carrying cord. This piece was used and we collected it on the premises in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Kina shells are used for bride price, blood feud paybacks, wealth displays and exchange festivals as well as for admission to men’s clubs and secret societies (Papua New Guinea's paper money is named after the Kina shell). When a kina is used as payment in a ceremony, it may be mounted with resin onto a oval clay-covered display board called a moka and stained with bright red dyes (we have one of those in our buy it nows also, which are extremely rare). These pectoral are also often tinted with red ochre, and sometimes decorated with small cowry shells set into resin paste (which we have some of as well) and collected from one of the warriors seen here.. We can put these pieces here upon request but we will also be listing them regularly.
Shells pieces such as this are still used in traditional ceremonial payments as well as pectoral ornements for special ceremonies. When the Leahy brothers came into the Highlands of Papua New Guinea searching for gold, they found people who valued the gold-lipped pearl shell as much as the miners valued gold. Shells are valuable all over New Guinea, but especially so in the Highlands where the traditional trading contacts between tribes slowly passed shells from ocean to mountain valleys.
The tribes or Irian Jaya, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea have lived in isolation for centuries due to the remoteness of their land and its difficult access. Their dress code has remained primitive for centuries. Traditionally, the men wear no other clothing apart from a penis sheath made of a cultivated gourd and known locally as a “horim” and some simple ornamentation such as string hair nets, bird of paradise feathers and necklaces with boar tusks or cowrie shells or other.
We carry many other artifacts we collect direct from the tribes, in East and West Papua and the Trobriands and remote islands of Indonesia
Our prices are very low as we sell mostly wholesale and we go straight to the source to find these treasures, so you are getting the advantage of that saving as well as the advantage of the wholesale price without having to purchase multiples for a little while longer while we are making room.
To see pictures of our collection, go to this link below and scroll down till you get to the photos, there are a few pages of pictures text for educational purposes that we were asked to place on this site and we add more weekly whenever we find time. You will find there photos of what we collect and sell regularly and the interesting stories behind these items we search for in remote areas of the world http://tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=14409forum=5 and if you want to see colorful artwork to get ideas, and ways to transform houses with no flair into Carribean hideways, check this link again on the same site for fun! http://www.tikiroom.com/tikicentral/bb/viewtopic.php?topic=16503forum=64
|