Armband Currency (Mwali)
ClassificationsClothing and Adornments-arm ornaments
Culture
Massim
Datelate 20th Century
Made AtMilne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea
MediumShell, beads and string
DimensionsEach: 7 1/8 × 4 × 1 5/8 in. (18.1 × 10.2 × 4.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Anne and Long Shung Shih
Object number2018.13.40a,b
DescriptionMwali armbands are made of shell, beads, and string. They usually travel as a paired item. They aren’t normally worn, but instead are hung from rope and either exchanged as part of the Massim's region's Kula trade, used as bride price, or admired as wealth. The Kula trade was an exchange of gifts spaning thousands of miles in a route through the islands of New Guinea. In the kul aring mwali were traded in a counterclockwise direction and red shell discs were traded in the clockwise direction.On View
Not on viewCollections
late 20th Century
c. 1950
mid 19th - early 20th Century
mid 19th to early 20th Century
19th to 20th Century
late 19th to 20th Century
mid 20th Century
