ABSTRACT
New Ireland, off the coast of Papua New Guinea, is famous for its intricately carved and coloured sculptures called Malanggan. Malanggan come from northern New Ireland where they circulate across several distinct language groups. Motifs travel between the figures, and each new Malanggan is a composite of elements drawn from other Malanggan. The crucial point about the destruction of the mortuary Malanggan is that the gathered agency of the deceased has then to be redispersed, whether to revitalize old relationships in new form or to return the deceased’s powers in a more general way to the clan. The recombination of elements of information, the amalgamation of new and existing forms, the minute variations that may be sufficient to demonstrate crucial intervention, channelling past knowledge to future effect, a limited period of efficacy: this could as well describe a Malanggan as it describes a patent.
