Currency (Talipun)

ClassificationsSculpture

Culture Yangoru Boiken

Datemid 20th Century

Made AtEast Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea

MediumTurbo Marmoratus shell, cane, wood, pigment and cassowary feather

Dimensions23 × 18 × 14 in. (58.4 × 45.7 × 35.6 cm)

Credit LineBowers Museum Purchase

Object number2013.17.1

DescriptionTalipun are one of the oldest forms of currency in New Guinea. Combining a giant green snail shell, and typically a woven representation of an ancestral face, then pigmented and accentuated with cassowary feathers, the currency is exchanged as bride price in conjunction with other valuables.

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