Mindja
Kwoma · numen · Kwoma traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Mindja, also minja, mija or amarki, is the clan spirit celebrated in the second ceremony of the Kwoma yam cycle. Its image is a tall plank-like figure bearing a yena-like face, its body covered with diamond motifs said to represent banana leaves and undulating bands depicting the coils of a snake. Mindja is described as a water spirit bound up with the fertility of the gardens; like yena it is displayed above a mounded store of yams, which may not be eaten until the spirit has been honoured with song and dance. The name is also that of the ceremony itself, and every clan performs its own mindja.
Domains
- yam fertility
- water and lakes
Powers
- governs the fertility of the yam gardens as a water spirit
Sources
- Mindja is the clan spirit of the second Kwoma yam ceremony, imaged as a tall plank figure with a yena-like face and snake-coil and banana-leaf ornament, and described as a water spirit associated with fertility.: Ross Bowden, Yena: Art and Ceremony in a Sepik Society (Pitt Rivers Museum, 1983) (secondary); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, collection records, Kwoma yam-ceremony figures (secondary)