Pubic belt | Malo
About the object
Traditional garment for men, which is still worn in the northeast of Papua New Guinea today for celebratory events. The bast is made from the fibrous inner bark of the mulberry tree, which is beaten with wooden mallets until the fibres form a composite mass. As an everyday piece of clothing, the cloths are called »Malo« on Tok Pisin and were replaced by shorts or European and Asian clothes at the beginning of the 20th century. The object comes from the Robert Beirer collection from Sipplingen, who worked as a stores assistant for the German New Guinea Company at the end of the 19th century and sold a large collection to the Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde in Freiburg.