Historically, the Asmat believed that no person died a natural death; people died by violence or by humanly inflicted supernatural means. Deaths had to be avenged so the person's spirit could enter the world of the dead. Acts of revenge were therefore an ordinary part of life against which shields, their images, and colors provided both physical and spiritual protection. Images referred to beliefs surrounding death, revenge, warfare, and connections to the spirit world. the S-shaped figure represented human beings and may refer to an ancestor whose spiritual strength is embodied in the shield, and for whom the shield is named