Wantoat Drum (Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea)
This hand drum is attributed to the Wantoat people of Morobe Province in northeastern Papua New Guinea.
Carl A. Schmitz describes the drums as central to Wantoat dance performances. The men formed the inner circle and alone played the drums, while the women danced around them. The rhythm was maintained continuously, and drums being tuned beside the fire could sometimes be heard alongside the dancing. According to Schmitz, older men recalled that drums were formerly tuned so that their sound could resemble the name of a girl whose attention a dancer wished to attract.
Historical photography by Schmitz also records this type of drum in the context of Wantoat ceremonial performance, although the instrument is difficult to distinguish clearly in the surviving photographs. The surviving drum itself demonstrates the characteristic combination of a carefully shaped wooden body, a single membrane and a functional handle that typifies this regional hand-drum tradition.
Source
"The dancers form a circle with the men, who alone beat the drums, in the center and the women all around. To the rhythm of the drums they dip and bob, flexing both knees, and advance the feet in small, dragging steps.(...)
Every now and again the drumming of the dancers is drowned by the irregular beating of one of the drums still being tuned by some men at the side. (…)
For hours the men sit at the fire trying to modify the sound of their drums.
Old men say that formerly people tried to make the drum sound in such a way that it resembled
the name of a girl whose attention and favour they hoped to gain by particular excellence in the dance."
Carl A. Schmitz, Wantoat – Art and Religion of the Northeast New Guinea Papuans.
Bibliography:
Bodrogi, T. (1961):
Art in North-East New Guinea. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Massola, Aldo (1957):
Drum Types of Eastern New Guinea.
Schmitz, Carl A. (1963):
Wantoat – Art and Religion of the Northeast New Guinea Papuans.
