How many Types Of Tiki are there? - General Tiki

B bigbrotiki Tiki Socialite Tiki Island, above the Silverlake Joined: Mar 25, 2002 Posts: 11621	B bigbrotiki Posted posted on Wed, Aug 29, 2007 5:45 PM I think Fae has been an exceedingly good sport here, and so I will try to answer this in earnest. Problem is, there is no easy answer. The missionaries did such a great job with eradicating Polynesian religion and myth that a lot of the information one can find nowadays is based on assumptions. Except for Rongo Rongo, there was no written language in Polynesia, so there is no catalog of Tiki mug shots that states "This is Rongo, this is Maui." There are SOME examples, but most are uncertain. In the case of the Hawaiian war god Ku, there are enough surviving specimens of statuary that allow us to put a name to a deity AND a style of design. But then there are many other deities that are associated with carvings by hearsay. The Polynesian religion was based on ancestor worship, wich was an ORAL tradition that survived by generations learning and reciting the histories of the ancestor gods. This all died out with the last elders. Also, there are quite a few different styles of Tiki carvings by island groups, like the Marquesan, the Hawaiian, the Cook Islands and the Maori/New Zealand carving styles. In these island groups, some of the ancestor gods, like Tangaroa, are shared among the different islands, but for different carvings, PLUS their meanings and responsibilities vary by island tradition. So what I am trying to say is that A.) there is no easy labeling, and B.) we here on Tiki Central are also not THAT concerned with scholarly correct labeling. The fact that all these figures are all called "Tiki" is already incorrect, as the different island groups called them Tiki, Ti'i, Ki'i, akua, Moai etc. This is not to say that we on TC would not welcome any valiant attempt to clear up the mess that the missionaries left us with :) Please, if anyone has the expertise, post away. The type of Tiki that Tiki Central is mostly concerned with ist best described in "The Book of Tiki", which unfortunately is now out of print. The book's endpages also have a nice pictograph map that shows the Oceanic art styles with their respective islands. Any further study of mysticism associated with these deities is, though not discouraged, really not the focus of this board, and if so, engaged in by private disgression of the individual readers of this book and this board.

I think Fae has been an exceedingly good sport here, and so I will try to answer this in earnest. Problem is, there is no easy answer. The missionaries did such a great job with eradicating Polynesian religion and myth that a lot of the information one can find nowadays is based on assumptions. Except for Rongo Rongo, there was no written language in Polynesia, so there is no catalog of Tiki mug shots that states "This is Rongo, this is Maui." There are SOME examples, but most are uncertain.

In the case of the Hawaiian war god Ku, there are enough surviving specimens of statuary that allow us to put a name to a deity AND a style of design. But then there are many other deities that are associated with carvings by hearsay. The Polynesian religion was based on ancestor worship, wich was an ORAL tradition that survived by generations learning and reciting the histories of the ancestor gods. This all died out with the last elders.

Also, there are quite a few different styles of Tiki carvings by island groups, like the Marquesan, the Hawaiian, the Cook Islands and the Maori/New Zealand carving styles. In these island groups, some of the ancestor gods, like Tangaroa, are shared among the different islands, but for different carvings, PLUS their meanings and responsibilities vary by island tradition.

So what I am trying to say is that A.) there is no easy labeling, and B.) we here on Tiki Central are also not THAT concerned with scholarly correct labeling. The fact that all these figures are all called "Tiki" is already incorrect, as the different island groups called them Tiki, Ti'i, Ki'i, akua, Moai etc.

This is not to say that we on TC would not welcome any valiant attempt to clear up the mess that the missionaries left us with :)
Please, if anyone has the expertise, post away.

The type of Tiki that Tiki Central is mostly concerned with ist best described in "The Book of Tiki", which unfortunately is now out of print. The book's endpages also have a nice pictograph map that shows the Oceanic art styles with their respective islands. Any further study of mysticism associated with these deities is, though not discouraged, really not the focus of this board, and if so, engaged in by private disgression of the individual readers of this book and this board.

Post #328913 by bigbrotiki on Wed, Aug 29, 2007 5:45 PM