This pair of panels were hung together in a traditional Mentawai home. They represent either crocodiles or possibly lizards, motifs associated in Austronesian belief with fertility and the underworld. Mentawai people produced images of prey animals in their homes in the belief this made the spirits of these animals feel more at home when their carcasses were brought in after a hunt.The Mentawai islands has a culture deemed by art historians and ethnographers alike as being less heavily influenced by outside cultures and truer to their Austronesian roots. It has a small population and until recently the islands were particularly isolated. Mentawai art is a reflection of the simple tools, techniques and materials available and is exceedingly rare.
