Post #313079 by Paipo on Fri, Jun 15, 2007 2:27 PM

On 2007-06-14 19:20, Benzart wrote:

Well, What izit in his hot little hands??

this guy? (7/8" tall)

It'a another tiki! Well, part of one anyway...

These pieces were usually cut down for easy ship transportation (hence my idea for the fragment), but originally looked like this:

The purpose of these staff gods and the beliefs embodied in their fascinating abstraction can only be guessed at. It has been suggested that they are the genealogical staves of principal family lineages in Rarotonga, or that the succession of secondary figures represents generations of ancestors surmounted by the creator god, Tangaroa. The emphasis given to the ears of the secondary figures has led to the theory that Taranganui or "Great Ears", an ancestral figure, is represented. These same little stylised figures with large ears appear on other objects from Rarotonga. They dance around the terminal of a ceremonial staff and fringe the edges of a specatcular canoe sternpiece.

My next pass at this design will hopefully include at least two each of the frontal and profile supporting figures - single sided of course! (The originals are double sided!) I have spent literally months looking at these carvings in the form of hopelessly inadeqaute photos, and trying to work out the intricacies of these little figures. I wish the nearest museum had their Pacific collection on display so I could go and eyeball one in person.