IMAGES AND THE BODYENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, SECOND EDITIONThe material forms of religious practice are found to
address all aspects of human embodiment. Four objects
from South Pacific societies make this clear. Drumming
is part of the liturgical life of peoples as far apart as
Oceania, native North America, Africa, and Mongolia.
As an accompaniment to song and dance, the drum helps
to celebrate key ritual occasions, such as funerals or the
completion of a house or canoe among peoples in Papua
New Guinea (d). The steady beat of the drum structures
chant and resonates through the body, harmonizing the
group that sings clan songs, initiates youth, or performs
the lamentation of burial. The drum is an instrument that
evokes bodily participation in the social life of ritual. No
less a part of ceremony is the painting of the body. Dishes
such as the one reproduced here (e) were used in Papua
New Guinea to mix pigments. It has been suggested that
since the figures on such dishes represent clan animals and
ancestors, using them for the mixing of colors applied to
the body may have been part of a ritual absorption of clan(d) ABOVE. A hand drum from East Sepik province in Papua New
Guinea, wood, fiber, shell, animal hide, and pigment. [Masco Col-
lection; photograph by Dirk Baker] (e) LEFT. A pigment dish from
East Sepik province in Papua New Guinea, wood, fiber, and pig-
ment. [Masco Collection; photograph by Dirk Baker]VV13.indd 3 13 .indd 3 1 10/15/04 5:30:04 PM 0 / 15 / 04 5 : 30 : 04 PM