Post #364531 by BrickHorn on Sun, Mar 2, 2008 9:24 PM

To me, Tiki begins and ends with taboo intoxicants in the form of alcoholic concoctions. Like many, my first exposure to tiki culture was images of fanciful drinks in Polynesian cocktail menus. I was way too young to drink, but even to a young pup who had yet to experience an alcohol buzz tiki drinks and their accompanying aesthetic promised deliverance from the mundane state of daily affairs. I can't shake the influence those formative exposures to tiki to see it as anything else than a culture of artificially exotic hedonism.

That said, while culturally-acceptable hedonism was the original raison d'etre of tiki culture, I suppose that perhaps its current embodiment as kitsch aesthetic enables prudes and teetotalers to engage on a certain level. But their participation must be analogous to that of Jane Goodall in chimpanzee society: they live alongside us, enjoy our company and respect our culture, but they are incapable of experiencing tiki to its fullest. At least, they can't experience it any more fully than I could as a young kid, full of curiosity and wonder, perusing mysterious and tempting polynesian drink menus.