Abstract
Ghost Figures of Santa Cruz THE wooden figures from Santa Cruz, which represent the ghost or soul of a person who has been successful during his life and has gained prestige, are figured and described by Joyce Gillett, of the Cranmore Etlmographical Museum, Chislehurst, in Man October 1939. These wooden figures are made after death and erected in the house of the deceased, when a feast is given. After the feast, the figure remains in the house standing in a corner. Very often skulls are seen standing around the figure, and these are said to be the skulls of past owners and keepers. Each figure has one keeper, and often gifts of tau and conch shells are placed before it. The figures are made, and regarded with esteem, not on account of an unwillingness to forget the dead, but because of a fear that unless something tangible is made in the likeness of a man who was lucky, that which was for the good of the people during his lifetime may be lost for ever. But if such an image is made, it is believed that the maker has captured for all time the gift of being lucky which was bestowed on the deceased, and this can now be transferred into the body of any living person— usually a member of the family or a relative—where it will continue to function. One example, now in the Cranmore Museum, was found in a disused house, not a ghost house, suspended from a height of five feet, and encased in a conical bird-cage of wood, the whole being covered with mats and tapa cloth, which appeared to have been smoked over a fire. On unwrapping, a very carefully decorated male form was found, in the nose and ears of which were pendants of pearl shell; pearl shell pendants hung on the hair, which was wrapped in tapa cloth and dressed in the shape of a cone, and protruded at the back of the neck. Biceps, wrists, knees, and ankles are circled with fibres on which are pendants and adornments of shell or seeds, while around the waist was a loin-cloth and a girdle of currency. The whole figure was dusted with turmeric.
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Research Items. Nature 144, 870–871 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144870a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144870a0