Monkeymen

Monkeymen, Sen

For a discussion of the word sen, see Word of the Week.

An early 20th century monkeyman carver and his monkeyman depicted by Paul Jacoulet.

Question: Chris Louvar is writing a thesis on the Milwaukee Public Museum's collection of monkeymen, collected in 1948. Chris is trying to find out if anyone knows when these monkeymen were carved or who carved them? Take a look and let us know if you have any information about these monkeymen.

Two Tobi men in Angaur with
monkeymen during Navy times.
Patricio gave this monkeyman to Peter Black in 1968. Photograph: Peter Black.

Lt. Henry Wahl, U.S.N., Administrator of Angaur. Monkeyman on bookshelf in the quonset hut where he and his wife Cecilia lived in the late 1940s. Photograph from Cecilia Hendricks Wahl's Number One Pacific Island, (Bloomington, Indiana: Woodcrest Publishing, 2000), p. 29.


Peter Black's monkeymen, Virginia, 1998.

Eilers' plates (Eilers, 1936: plate 5) of Tobian wood figures.

Barbara B. Wavell. From Sacred to Souvenir: The Squatting Figure as a Motif in Micronesian Art. Tribal Arts: Summer/Autumn (2002), pp. 62-75. Many spectacular photographs of monkeymen and a discussion of this interesting art form. Email her at bbwavell@mindspring.com.

Barbara B. Wavell. From Sacred to Souvenir: The Squatting Figure as a Motif in Micronesian Art. Unpublished paper, 11 pp. Micronesian Squatting Figure: Style Guide. Illustrations 1-6. Illustrations 7-14.   Copyright, Barbara B. Wavell.

To read about the stone squatting figure referred to by Barbara Wavell see The Tobi Stone Figurine. The Tobi Stone Figurine. In Appendix 7: Tobi Island Artifacts. Archaeological Test Excavations, Palau Islands. Micronesica. Supplement No. 1. Douglas Osborne. Pp. 349-353. Guam: University of Guam, 1979.

Barbara B. Wavell. The Art of Micronesia, Catalogue of an Exhibition at Maitland Art Center, 05/10/96-07/07/96. Maitland Art Center. Maitland, Florida.

For a large female figure from Tobi, see Barbara Von Treide's In den Weiten des Pazifik - Mikronesien: ausgewählte Objekte aus den Sammlungen der Museen für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig und Dresden. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1997.

Barbara B. Wavell: two images of museum cases from a Micronesian exhibit. The first contains monkeymen and Saipan carvings and the second case contains larger monkeymen (October 2002):

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Updated: April 4, 2022

For a discussion of the word sen, see Word of the Week.	An early 20th century monkeyman carver and his monkeyman depicted by Paul Jacoulet.
Question: Chris Louvar is writing a thesis on the Milwaukee Public Museum's collection of monkeymen, collected in 1948. Chris is trying to find out if anyone knows when these monkeymen were carved or who carved them? Take a look and let us know if you have any information about these monkeymen.
Two Tobi men in Angaur with monkeymen during Navy times.	Patricio gave this monkeyman to Peter Black in 1968. Photograph: Peter Black.


Lt. Henry Wahl, U.S.N., Administrator of Angaur. Monkeyman on bookshelf in the quonset hut where he and his wife Cecilia lived in the late 1940s. Photograph from Cecilia Hendricks Wahl's Number One Pacific Island, (Bloomington, Indiana: Woodcrest Publishing, 2000), p. 29.

Peter Black's monkeymen, Virginia, 1998.	Eilers' plates (Eilers, 1936: plate 5) of Tobian wood figures.

Barbara B. Wavell. From Sacred to Souvenir: The Squatting Figure as a Motif in Micronesian Art. Tribal Arts: Summer/Autumn (2002), pp. 62-75. Many spectacular photographs of monkeymen and a discussion of this interesting art form. Email her at bbwavell@mindspring.com.
Barbara B. Wavell. From Sacred to Souvenir: The Squatting Figure as a Motif in Micronesian Art. Unpublished paper, 11 pp. Micronesian Squatting Figure: Style Guide. Illustrations 1-6. Illustrations 7-14. Copyright, Barbara B. Wavell. To read about the stone squatting figure referred to by Barbara Wavell see The Tobi Stone Figurine. The Tobi Stone Figurine. In Appendix 7: Tobi Island Artifacts. Archaeological Test Excavations, Palau Islands. Micronesica. Supplement No. 1. Douglas Osborne. Pp. 349-353. Guam: University of Guam, 1979.
Barbara B. Wavell. The Art of Micronesia, Catalogue of an Exhibition at Maitland Art Center, 05/10/96-07/07/96. Maitland Art Center. Maitland, Florida.
For a large female figure from Tobi, see Barbara Von Treide's In den Weiten des Pazifik - Mikronesien: ausgewählte Objekte aus den Sammlungen der Museen für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig und Dresden. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1997.
Barbara B. Wavell: two images of museum cases from a Micronesian exhibit. The first contains monkeymen and Saipan carvings and the second case contains larger monkeymen (October 2002):