Beschrijvingskaart: 29 Maart 1955, S. Kooijman :<BR> In de vorm van een trapezium met een aangevlochten handvat. Het tasje is met een blauwe baan versierd.<BR> Herkomst : Netar toea.<BR> <BR> This looped sting bag is called bilum in Melanesian pidgin.<BR> They form a category of objects used daily and are common almost over the whole of New Guinea. <BR> Mackenzie noticed that even if the bilum is widespread in the whole of Papua New Guinea, in the majority of the lowland and coastal regions, it is not, and never has been the primary multi-functional artefact that it is in the interior mountain regions. <BR> They are traditionally constructed <BR> from the interconnected loops of a bark fibres, hand spun into a virtually unbreakable two-ply string. Each bag is completed from a single string, as the maker, usually although not always a woman, alternately adds to the string by spinning more fibres against the thigh, and then uses the new length to construct further loops of the bag. <BR> The universal and primary function of the looped string bag is as a container for transporting goods. In this respect large bags are most commonly associated with women, who use a large and expensive bilum in all their daily activities to carry the produce of their garden and their womb. Women could wear until five bilum. These are carried on the back and the sling is on the forehead. Whereas men sling them over their shoulders. They contain men’s personal possessions and implement of daily life. Men, women and children may each have more than one bilum, of different styles and sizes according to the purpose. <BR> Despite the fast changing socio-economic conditions, bilum looping is an activity which remains integral to contemporary life in many regions of new Guinea. Introduced material as colourful yarns and extruded nylons are also used<BR> Thus bilums express gender and social condition of their wearers. Sometimes they transcends their utilitarian function and become an embodiment of ritual potency representing cultural knowledge. They are also part of numerous myths which deal with female spirits who possess net bags.