Can anyone identify this?

My wife and I took this picture on the Big Island last year, I just noticed it again looking through the alubm, can anyone explain this?

[ Edited by: Aaron's Akua - Topic moved, title revised slightly to correspond - 2006-11-08 09:50 ]

I don't know what it means in that part of the world. But voodoo alters in Haiti often feature items (such as dolls, skulls, bottles) bound similarly with ropes, string, ribbon, etc.

It looks like a Isaac Hayes 'Hot Buttered Soul' memorial to me.

Before becoming the voice of Chef on South Park, Isaac Hayes was known for his outfits of gold chains - once a symbol of slavery, but Isaac wore them for their symbols of strength and power.

The statue may not actually represent Isaac, but it does appear to be influenced by the late 60's/70's Black Movement, of which Isaac was one of many symbolic leaders.

Vern

Isaac Hayes Live at the Sahara Tahoe live album! Check him out in "Truck Turner"-classic Blaxploitation film! My guess is that is a statue of Grog! He must've done something very bad on the islands...

I Dunno, Looks like he got caught trying to steal more chains than he could carry!

That not GROG. GROG never been chained before. Handcuffed---well that's a different story.

ow

Could it be a Joe Cocker tribute statue?

I revise my above statement - although my first late-night coonnection was with Isaac Hayes, I now think this statue represents the Greek mythological figure Prometheus.

In a nutshell, here is how the story goes ....

The god Zeus, did not care for or like mankind, saying that man would not be able to handle knowledge and the divine gifts. Zeus expected man to live in a primitive form, and eventually die off.

Prometheus took pity on mankind, stole fire from Zeus, and presented fire as a gift to man. The gift of fire unleashed a flood of creativity and inventiness - which led to the development of language, art, and culture.

Zeus was angered that Prometheus had stolen the fire and presented it to man - so he shackled Prometheus to the side of a high mountain, where he would forever be chained. As part of the punishment, each day an eagle would tear at Prometheus's flesh, and try to devour his liver, and each night, the liver would heal back to its original form ... and the eagle would return again the next day. Because Prometheus was immortal, he could not die, and so this punishment would go on forever and forever.

Prometheus thus represents many things - a champion of mankind, a voice of reason against power, a voice of reason against tyranny, someone who is able to accept punishment to better mankind, and a visionary that can see far into the future a vison of a better world. There are similarities between the Greek myth Prometheus, and Jesus, who also died on the cross for the benefit of mankind.

The web has much information about Prometheus - here are a couple of good links:

http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/prometheus/shortsumm.html
http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/prometheus/themes.html

Vern