Post #1748 by bigbrotiki on Mon, May 27, 2002 9:11 AM

It is true that basically all "Tahitian" Tikis are from or at least based on Marquesan idols, because pre-contact Tahiti did not have a carving tradition, their god images were symbolic sennit bundles with some feathers stuck into them. So there really is no Tahitian Tiki, but since the growth of tourism in the 20th century many Marquesan carvers (and now tatooists) have moved to Tahiti to make a living. I have seen photos of Trader Vic buying wooden post Tikis in Tahiti which were clearly Marquesan style. All the architectural post Tikis you see in Tahitian Hotels are based on the tradition that the Marquesans used these in their slanted A-frame huts.
Tahitians and Marquesans have a local pride issue because of this and other examples of selling Marquesan culture as Tahitian for tourist business which really came to a peak when, as an afterthought, the French Tahitian authorities decided that this Survivor should not be called Survivor Marquesas but Survivor Tahiti! They suddenly slapped the Producer with all kinds of invented fees in the tens of thousands, but he did not budge.
The sad fact is that the Tahitian government, though headed now by a native Tahitian, is just as full of corruption and nepotism as any Banana Republic.