Female figure

This figure’s head, arms, and legs appear to have been ritually removed or “killed,” perhaps—as in more recent times—to prevent the figure’s reanimation by evil spirits after the departure or death of the owner. The torso resembles other Punuk figures in its fine naturalistic attention to form and design, seen in unusually realistic breast treatment, expanding hips, swelling belly, and well-modeled backside. Such sculptural refinement is absent in Okvik figure carving. In the Western art tradition, the affinity of this piece to “classical” forms of Greek and Roman sculpture gives it significant art value.