Can you identify this Tahitian tiki for me?

I bought this tiki in Moorea, Tahiti on our honeymoon about 10 years ago. It’s about 5-1/2” tall.

Can anyone identify the name or legend behind this particular tiki? Is it truly Tahitian? I think the shopkeeper told us it was a “god of war”.

I’d like to carve up a reproduction of this guy but quite a bit larger. If anybody has any info, it would be real helpful and much appreciated.

Mahalo!

Aaron

"Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness."
-Pablo Picasso

[ Edited by: Aaron's Akua on 2004-12-08 15:02 ]

I do not know, but we have two of them from our honeymoon 3 years ago in Tahiti/Bora Bora

Yeah, his name is Sean.

....no, seriously: Hopefully this will not be too much of a dissillusionment, but this Tiki can undoubtedly be identified as a TOURIST Tiki, probably massproduced in the Phillipines.

Name and purpose arbitrary, depending on what the label or the vendor says. The style is Marquesan, because the ancient Tahitian god figures were not figurative, but sennit bundles (only lil household voodod worship dolls survived in carved form).
Because of the lack of their own Tiki style, and also because of talented carvers migrating from the Marquesas to Tahiti, the Marquesan style became the Tiki style of choice for the Tahitian tourist trade.

But just as Pablo Picasso said:“You don’t need the masterpiece to get the idea. The concept or component of a style is entirely accessible in second-rate examples and even fakes”

This Tiki is full of YOUR mana of that special time, so it would be a Honeymoon Tiki, protecting you from anything that might mess with the eternal honeymoon you are on.

I thought as much! It’s funny that when you ask a shopkeeper in a tourist area about a particular tiki, the answer is almost guaranteed to be one of three things: A) The god of love, B) The god of war, or C) The god of fertility.

On a trip to Maui a few years back, my wife and I were driving around the island, and ran into a small carving shack alongside the road. The guys selling the tikis were so stoned as to be pretty much unintelligible, but we gathered that every one of their tikis on display were “Love Gods”.

It is really hard to find authentic tiki info, at least for me so far.

The only evidence of ancient religion that we saw in Tahiti was the ruins of an old temple, which really looked like a pile of stones with moss all over it.

So, Sven, I have to say you’re right. This is a “Honeymoon Tiki” for us, and we’ll always treasure it, even if it was made in the Philippines. I think I’ll do that carving for my wife.

Mahalo!

A-A

"Honeymoon Tiki" seems to be appropriate (to me at least) as it looks like this lil guy is "sporting a woody" that would be right at home on his marriage night.

Its Marquesas influenced but there are tons of them in Tahiti. Only a few shops in Papeete sell true Tiki's and at a price.

you better eat that banana soon, or make yourself a milkshake with, I don't know.

Here is a show in Tahiti about it
http://www.tahitipresse.pf/presse.cfm?action=open&type=1&idpr=8825&lang=2

this guy is a classic from the Oceanic Art's catalog here in CA...
this gut is used a bit in several ways by Leroy's shop....

it is defiantly the same guy as the tourist jobber above...
SVEN???
what is the story on this figure with the spear?????
Temple image? from what museum piece did it originate???if at all.....

Yes, Al. That looks like it might be the original incarnation of TOURIST TIKI. All of the rough edges were worn off by tourist looky-loos handling the merchandise.

Was this indeed the original inspiration? Sven? anybody?

Well yes, but a tourist Tiki nevertheless. Maybe carved en masse by Marquesan carvers for Tahitian tourists in the 60s, O.A. either accquired one and copied it, or ordered them in bulk from there.
The tourist carvings from the islands used to be so much better craftsmanship in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Now with the mass-produced pieces being farmed out to Asian manufacturers they resemble more and more what Paul Theroux called "nameless pieces of hacked wood".

A good example is the famous novelty "native girl nut cracker" with the hands behind the head and the legs as the nutcracking device (Ha ha, what a gass!). I have one that must be about 50 years old. It is carved in dark wood, the face has elegantly balanced features, and the breasts are well rounded and yummy looking. But most of what I see of this specific item out there is poor, disproportianate whittle wood.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2004-12-10 18:03 ]

A couple of months ago I believe there was a thread discussing this type of carving...but I can't find the thread. Does any one recognize it? Thanks.

It's one of those Hawaiian tourist carvings
prevalent in Island shops in the 1960s & 70s
many were of higher quality then other Tourist carvings of the era.