Malangan only ‚exist‘ as socially salient objects, for a very short period, during the mortuary ceremonies for important persons, during which they are gradually imbued with life by being carved and painted, brought to perfection and displayed for a few hours at the culminating point of the mortuary ritual—only to be ‘killed’ with gifts of shell-money. Once they have been ‘killed’ they no longer exist as ritual objects (which is why they may be subsequently be sold to collectors). The gift of money which ‘kills’ the Malangan entitles the donor to remember the image on display, and it is this internalized memory of the image, parcelled out among the contributors to the ceremony, which constitutes the ceremonial asset—entitling the possessor to social privileges—which is transacted at the mortuary ceremony and transmitted from the senior to the junior generations. (Gell 1998: 224-225)