Mana Animism Analysis

Religion has always played a role throughout history, providing moral and social guides, along with establishing the laws in society that govern how people carry things out in life. It provides a basic foundation of how people establish a relationship with everyone and everything around them. There are many religions in Oceania that impacted and determined how Indigenous people lived their lives, but the main ones that influenced them the most are Mana, Animism and Totemism. Mana is a supernatural power of life force. All things have Mana. Animism are individual spirits that inhabit all things. In other words, everything is alive and everything stands at the same amount of consciousness as humans. Totemism is the belief that humans have …show more content…
Depending on who or what the ancestor or spirit was, there was a specific set of characteristics they incorporated into their art. For example, Kavat masks made by the Baining people from Papua New Guinea would often incorporate a split top in the head of the mask to indicate that he is a spirit of a fork of a tree. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Several dozen forms of Kavat masks exist, each of which depicts a spirit linked with a specific animal, plant, product, or activity associated with the forest” (Mask (Kavat)). In other words, there were also many variations of characteristics on the mask that pertained to the spirit they wanted to have a connection with. These masks were primarily used for rituals that were “devoted to female fertility, agriculture, and the mourning of the dead” (Mask (Kavat)). They were used in rituals and through the rituals, they usually practiced the beliefs which their religion taught them to follow. Animism and Totemism would be the main religions in which these masks would be influenced by. Without any influence from any religion, these masks probably wouldn’t have had the characteristics in style they acquired from their beliefs. Religion influences how art is stylized in that people in Oceania believed they could communicate with the spirits through the …show more content…
Instead of art just being an aesthetic object to be looked at, most art made in Oceania was made with a function and a purpose. An example of this were the hair ornaments that were worn in the hair of people in Oceania. Hair ornaments were used “as a form of spiritual armor” to protect the individual, and “warriors wore them until they avenged the death of a kinsman” (Gardner). Hair ornaments were worn as an amulet and a reminder to avenge a person’s death, and when the death was avenged, they were no longer worn in the hair. Religion played a role here in providing the wearer with supernatural power through protection. Because they also believed spirits inhabited all things, they didn’t want their newly dead loved ones to live as a spirit with anger and resentment, so they avenged their death to commemorate and also restore balance in Mana. Bisj Poles are also another example of how religion affects and influences the function of art. Similar to the hair ornaments, Bisj Poles were also used to memorialize the dead and avenge their death. Every death creates an imbalance in power, or what they believe is Mana, so they honor them and promise to avenge their death through the ceremonies in which Bisj Poles are used. After the ceremonies, they would then discard the poles in addition to being “left to decompose among sago palms, to which their vigour was ideally transferred” (Thomas 82). Once the function