Western medicine may focus on pills to cure patients' ills, but the inhabitants of the Nicobar islands, to the east of India in the Bay of Bengal, still build wooden figures, or hentakoi, to keep on good terms with the spirits and ensure the health and wellbeing of the community. The figures embody animal spirits that characterise an illness and help the menluana, the doctor-priest of the community, to capture the illness.
The figure shown above, which dates from the last quarter of the nineteenth century, is one of several items on permanent display from 3 November at the new Wellcome Trust gallery at the British Museum, London. The display, "Living and Dying," contains various ethnographic works, including an Easter Island statue and apocalypse figures from the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations.
Figure 1.
For more information see www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk