Acknowledgement of the ancestors permeates Asmat life and art. “The main raison d’être of Asmat woodcarving is to serve as a vehicle for appeasing the ancestors. Every death has to be avenged in order for the souls of the dead to move to the realm of the ancestors; if not, they will continue to roam and trouble the living. Wooden images are made for certain rituals to remind the living of their duty to avenge the dead.”(Dirk Smidt in Newton 1999: 182-183)
