Photo © Finnin/AMNH

This Iatmul stool from the Sepik River region of Papua New Guinea, collected by Margaret Mead on an American Museum of Natural History expedition in the early 1930s, features scarification and face paint. Often referred to as a "debating stool," it was displayed in the ceremonial house and was beaten during speeches given by men wearing similar face paint. Both scarification and face painting have always been essential in forming and expressing Iatmul masculine identity.