Draft:Korwar

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Last edited by Mangroves (talk | contribs) 26 hours ago. (Update)

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Korwars are carved wooden figures from West Papua, believed in local custom to serve as intermediaries between the spirit world and the world of the living. Korwars are often consulted for general advice, to assist in healing a sick family member, or to promote success in hunting. These statues are said to contain on of the soul of a deceased relative, and are created to serve this function. Korwars can also be discarded if it is believed that the deceased's soul had departed from the figure, and in these cases the korwar is taken to a place where the wood it is comprised of will eventually decompose.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Korwars are meant to represent a specific deceased person, and are created to house one of the two souls that each person posses in traditional West Papuan cosmology. A korwar can hold the spirit which will remain to advise the family members and community, while the other spirit of the deceased will continue to the "abode of the dead," which is said to be located in the Milky Way. These figures also range in size from only a few centimeters to the largest observed at sixty centimeters.^[4]

Certain types of korwars can contain the skull of the deceased person, either in an enclosed chamber, or as a visible adornment.^[4]

According to researcher Frans-Karel Weener, korwars as a fixture in West Papuan culture in the Cenderawasih Bay area gradually became obsolete in favor of Christianity at the beginning of the 20th century, and when villages were converted, the Papuans would either burn their korwars or surrender them to the missionaries.^[5]

References

↑ Kamma, Freerk Ch. (1972), "History of the Movements 1855–1967", in Kamma, Freerk Ch. (ed.), Koreri Messianic Movements in the Biak-Numfor Culture Area: Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land-, En Volkenkunde Translation Series 15, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 102–156, doi:10.1007/978-94-015-0742-4_8, ISBN 978-94-015-0742-4, retrieved 2026-07-14
↑ Soukup, Martin (2018). "Second Life of Bodies in New Guinea". Annals of the Náprstek Museum. 39 (1): 5–20. doi:10.1515/anpm-2018-0002. ISSN 2533-5685.
↑ Drieënhuizen, Caroline (2022). "Provenance report regarding Voorouderbeeld [Human figure]" (PDF). Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
1 2 Wellfelt, Emilie (2019-03-19). "Raja Ampat Ritual Art: Spirit Priests and Ancestor Cults in New Guinea's Far West, by Raymond Corbey". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 175 (1): 95–97. doi:10.1163/22134379-17501006. ISSN 0006-2294. Archived from the original on 2024-11-18.
↑ Weener, Frans-Karel. "Henry Blekkink." https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ac530cff2e6b1f8c1cee361/t/5da563bfe8d6f5205e0b6029/1571120072166/The+Korwar+Collection+of+Henry+Blekkink+by+Frans-Karel+Weener.pdf

[1] Kamma, Freerk Ch. (1972), "History of the Movements 1855–1967", in Kamma, Freerk Ch. (ed.), Koreri Messianic Movements in the Biak-Numfor Culture Area: Koninklijk Instituut Voor Taal-, Land-, En Volkenkunde Translation Series 15, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 102–156, doi:10.1007/978-94-015-0742-4_8, ISBN 978-94-015-0742-4, retrieved 2026-07-14

[2] Soukup, Martin (2018). "Second Life of Bodies in New Guinea". Annals of the Náprstek Museum. 39 (1): 5–20. doi:10.1515/anpm-2018-0002. ISSN 2533-5685.

[3] Drieënhuizen, Caroline (2022). "Provenance report regarding Voorouderbeeld [Human figure]" (PDF). Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).

[:0-4] 1 2 Wellfelt, Emilie (2019-03-19). "Raja Ampat Ritual Art: Spirit Priests and Ancestor Cults in New Guinea's Far West, by Raymond Corbey". Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. 175 (1): 95–97. doi:10.1163/22134379-17501006. ISSN 0006-2294. Archived from the original on 2024-11-18.

[5] Weener, Frans-Karel. "Henry Blekkink." https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ac530cff2e6b1f8c1cee361/t/5da563bfe8d6f5205e0b6029/1571120072166/The+Korwar+Collection+of+Henry+Blekkink+by+Frans-Karel+Weener.pdf

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