{"id":"MUS2026-389","label":"Kangulut obip san for pig magic","people_or_site":"Yupno (Kangulut village)","country_current":"Papua New Guinea","historic_region":"Kangulut, Yupno valley, Finisterre Range","macroregion":"Oceania / New Guinea","local_name":"obip san","source_term":"Schwirrholz | obip san","source_language":"German","object_description":"A 28 cm wooden blade narrowing to a point, incised on both faces, with names cut into the front, coloured with red earth (mangot) and a black tree-sap paste (simbu); photographed half-bound in a tied wrapping (MKB Vb 29804).","function_summary":"Used in pig magic.","attestation_type":"museum_specimen","source_key":"mkb_vb_29804_kangulut","source_type":"museum_collection","source_url":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/","page_or_plate":"MKB Vb 29804 (inventory card and object photograph); Bestandesliste 2022 PDF p. 3369","map_confidence":"medium_high","plot_status":"plot","coordinate_basis":"Kangulat (GeoNames PPL, Madang Province), the Yupno-valley village beside Gua; the card's spelling is Kangulut and it names Morobe Province.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"At Kangulut, in the Yupno valley high in the Finisterre Range, this short pointed blade worked pig magic. Its maker cut a pattern into the back and names into the front, then rubbed the grooves with mangot, a red earth, and simbu, a black paste made from the sap of the simbu tree. Verena Keck, who worked among the Yupno, brought it to Basel in 1988 still half-bound in its tied wrapping. Pigs and the bullroarer were old partners in these valleys: elsewhere among the Yupno, men told the women that the roar from the men's house was a hungry spirit crying to be fed, and ate the pigs the women brought it.","pull_quote":"","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"","term_gloss":"obip san - the Yupno name written for this blade; the card guesses the wood came from the obip tree.","cls":"sacred","class_label":"Sacred / spirit","color":"#8A5A2B","is_candidate":false,"flags":[],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 29804, Schwirrholz \"obip san\", Yupno, Kangulut","url":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20261014144522/https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/"},{"citation":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Bestandesliste Vb Melanesien (2022), Vb 29804","url":"https://www.mkb.ch/docroot/pdf/MKB-Bestandesliste-Vb-Melanesien_2022_234-MB.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20240407015638/https://www.mkb.ch/docroot/pdf/MKB-Bestandesliste-Vb-Melanesien_2022_234-MB.pdf"}],"source_citations":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 29804, Schwirrholz \"obip san\", Yupno, Kangulut; Museum der Kulturen Basel, Bestandesliste Vb Melanesien (2022), Vb 29804","source_display":"Museum der Kulturen Basel, Vb 29804, Schwirrholz \"obip san\", Yupno, Kangulut; Museum der Kulturen Basel, Bestandesliste Vb Melanesien (2022), Vb 29804","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A 28 cm wooden blade narrowing to a point, incised on both faces, with names cut into the front, coloured with red earth (mangot) and a black tree-sap paste (simbu); photographed half-bound in a tied wrapping (MKB Vb 29804).","function_display":"Used in pig magic.","confidence_display":"medium to high","attestation_label":"museum specimen","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"yupno","display_name":"Kangulut obip san for pig magic","image":{"full":"assets/objects/rowing_2026_11_12/MUS2026-389_mkb_vb29804.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/rowing_2026_11_12/thumbs/MUS2026-389_mkb_vb29804_thumb.jpg","alt":"Black-and-white photograph of a narrow pointed wooden blade lying diagonally, its rear half bound in a wrapping tied with string, the exposed point incised with a pattern; a small accession label reads Vb 29804.","credit":"Museum der Kulturen Basel (Vb 29804, coll. Verena Keck)","license":"CC BY 4.0","source_page":"https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/","rehosted":true,"representative":false,"caption":"The Kangulut obip san, half-bound in its tied wrapping, its incised and painted point bare."},"slug":"mus2026-389-yupno-kangulut-village"}