Abstract
The Murik, living in mangrove lakes at the mouth of the Sepik River, have long been noted for producing twill-plaited bags and wood carvings of human figures that are traded throughout the region and in contemporary times sold in markets and to tourists. Museum collections invariably contain examples of these two types of objects, testifying to their ubiquity but often lacking information about their cultural significance within the culture, in the regional exchange network or in the cash economy. Locally these two kinds of object play an important role in expressing and mediating claims to identity, status and group membership, and are deployed to mediate contradiction or avert conflict. I examine their relationship to personhood and leadership status in two rites of passage – initiation into leadership authority and end of mourning – and in local, regional and market arenas of exchange.
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