Post #439854 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Mar 13, 2009 8:21 PM

On 2009-03-13 16:24, A.R. McTiki wrote:

On 2009-03-12 21:48, bigbrotiki wrote:
That was a very concise question, and the simple answer could have been:
Yes, Hawaiiana is a subset of Tiki,

That really makes no sense. It's akin to arguing that the French Revolution is a subset of Napoleonic History instead of Napoleon being birthed in the fires of the revolution.

The obsession with Hawaii came first, Mid Century Modern takes on primitivism came after.

It makes sense from the p.o.v. of the TIKI collector who sees something posted on a TIKI website as TIKI which it is not. :)
To us "Tikicentric"-thinking folks, Hawaiiana are a subset to the ever-cooler TIKI artifacts. It admittedly is a terribly subjective view.

And you are right: Historically, Hawaiian and Polynesian icons existed and were called "Hawaiian" and "Polynesian" before the re-introduction of Tiki into pop culture in the 2000s. So why would they be called anything else now? The tendency of labeling every thing that is Hawaiian or Polynesian "TIKI" nowadays is a sign of being culturally misinformed (and I am not suggesting that ukutiki was doing that here).