Wooden figure from a Maori chief's house, New Zealand
Summary
Wooden figure from a Maori chief's house, New Zealand
Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
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Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN
Text Appearing Before Image:
151 —Neck-oniament (tiki) made fnuna human skull. New Zealand. 174 OCEANIA times, but later became one of the chief incentives to war.Enemies killed in battle or prisoners were the victims, and insome tribes the women took their share in the feast. Like therest of the Polynesians the Maori were absolutely ignorant ofany metal, their tools were made of jade, stone (fig. 133, /, /, m),obsidian, shell, bone, and teeth, and the results accomplished
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 152.--Wooden figure from a Maori chiefs house ; to illustratethe usual tatu of a man. New Zealand. with such apparently inadequate instruments were surprising.In particular, huge canoes sometimes eighty feet long and sixfeet broad were built of enormous planks cut from the solidtree and lashed together ; the figure-heads (fig. 11) and stern-posts were elaborately carved and painted, and the seamscarefully caulked. Sails of rushes were used, but the outriggerwas not employed. POLYNESIANS AND MICRONESIANS 175 Unlike the other Polynesians, the Maori did not manufacturebark-cloth, but alone practised a primitive foi-m of weaving ; thematerial was flax, which grew wild in great abundance and wascarefully prepared before use. Maori decorative art as seen intheir carvings is quite disiinctive, and on a high level; it is dis-tinguished by the constant recurrence of beautifully executedspirals, and human and animal grotesques ; house-gables, door-lintels, canoe-prows, feather-lioxes, and
Bone carving encompasses the acts of creating art, tools, and other goods by carving animal bones, antlers, and horns. It can result in the ornamentation of a bone or the creation of a distinct object. Bone carving has been practiced by a variety of world cultures, sometimes as a cheaper, and recently a legal, substitute for ivory carving. It was important in prehistoric art, with notable figures like the Swimming Reindeer, made of antler, and many of the Venus figurines.
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