Neck pendant

Crescent-shaped neck pendants of this type were made in the Malaita and San Cristobal area and were worn by men. Bird imagery occurs on this pendant as well as on another pendant, 755. Special fishing expeditions for bonito were formerly an important part of male initiation rites (see Fox, 1925; Davenport, 1981). Ivens (1927: 393-5) noted that small pendants like this example were made from local black-lip pearl shell.

Steven Hooper, 1997

Entry taken from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection, Vol. 2: Pacific, African and Native North American Art, edited by Steven Hooper (Yale University Press, 1997) p. 73.