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DECORATED DISPLAY-EXCHANGE STONES AND ONE SMALL PAINTED
AXE BLADE This picture shows a group of display-exchange stones and one small painted axe blade from the Dani tribal region of Irian Jaya. All of these stones were probably once used in various types of public ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. They may also have been used as stone currency to purchase such things as pigs. A very large stone is estimated to be valued as much as a large pig and a medium sized stone may be worth a medium
sized pig
(1999:
Hampton, pp. 113-114).
as currency are sometimes decorated with a wide variety of items such as pieces of fur, feathers, boar tusks, pig tails, orchid fiber cording, flattened reeds
and fiber strings. Some examples are also painted. decorated with the more common " skirts." "Skirts" are a female motif but according to the Dani people,
there are no male or female stones,
just stones.
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