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Art of Oceania
Course: Art of Oceania > Unit 1
Lesson 4: Polynesia- Polynesia, an introduction
- Paikea at the American Museum of Natural History
- Moai, sacred ancestor figures of Rapa Nui
- Rapa Nui (Easter Island) Moai
- Voyage to the moai of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
- Presentation of Fijian mats and tapa cloths to Queen Elizabeth II
- Rurutu figure known as A’a
- A welcome to a Maori meeting house
- Maori meeting house
- Hawaiian featherworks
- Feather cape
- Queen Liliʻuokalani’s accession photograph
- Necklace (Lei Niho Palaoa), Hawai'i
- Temple figure of war god Kūkaʻilimoku
- Fly Whisk (Tahiri), Austral Islands
- Michel Tuffery, Pisupo Lua Afe
- Gottfried Lindauer, Tamati Waka Nene
- Hiapo (tapa)
- Bark cloth from Wallis and Futuna
- Staff-god
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Maori meeting house
Marae
The Maori built meeting houses before the period of contact with Europeans. The early structures appear to have been used as the homes of chiefs, though they were also used for accommodating guests. They did not exist in every community. From the middle of the nineteenth century, however, they started to develop into an important focal point of local society. Larger meeting houses were built, and they ceased to be used as homes. The open space in front of the house, known as a marae, is used as an assembly ground. They were, and still are, used for entertaining, for funerals, religious and political meetings. It is a focus of tribal pride and is treated with great respect.
Pare
The meeting house is regarded as sacred. Some areas are held as more sacred than others, especially the front of the house. The lintel (pare) above the doorway is considered the most important carving, marking the passage from the domain of one god to that of another. Outside the meeting house is often referred to as the domain of Tumatauenga, the god of war, and thus of hostility and conflict. The calm and peaceful interior is the domain of Rongo, the god of agriculture and other peaceful pursuits.
The example above illustrates one of the two main forms of door lintel. The three figures, with eyes inlaid with rings of haliotis shell, are standing on a base which symbolizes Papa or Earth. The scene refers to the moment of the creation of the world as the three figures push the sky god Rangi and earth apart. The three figures are Rangi and Papa's children, the central one probably representing Tane, god of the forests. The two large spirals represent light and knowledge entering the world. The lintel was probably carved in the Whakatane district of the Bay of Plenty in the late 1840s.
Amo
This is a side post or amo from the front of a meeting house. A pair of amo would have supported the sloping barge boards of the house. The two carved figures represent named ancestors of the tribal group who owned the meeting house. The figures are male but the phalluses have been removed, probably after they were collected. Their eyes are inlaid with rings of haliotis shell. They are carved in relief with rauponga patterns, a style of Maori carved decoration in which a notched ridge is bordered by parallel plain ridges and grooves. Roger Neich, an expert on the subject of Maori carving, has identified the style of the carving of the post as that of the district of Poverty Bay in the East Coast area of the North Island.
This is one of a group of seven carvings purchased from Lady Sudeley in 1894. They were collected in New Zealand by her uncle, the Hon. Algernon Tollemache, probably between 1850 and 1873. This board and another from the same collection form a pair.
Poutokomanawa figure
This male figure is from the base of a poutokomanawa, an internal central post which supports the ridge-pole of a Maori meeting house. It represents an important ancestor of the tribal group which owned that house. The figure has fairly naturalistic features. It is clearly male, and has the typical Maori male hair topknot and a fully tattooed face. The eyes are inlaid with haliotis shell. The collar bone is carved as a raised ridge. The large hands
have just three fingers each. This is not unusual, varying numbers of fingers are to be found on Maori carvings, and may be due to regional differences in style, rather than having a symbolic meaning.
The style of carving - the solidly proportioned body and large hands—is typical of the prominent Ngati Kahungunu school of carvers from the central Hawkes Bay district, in the mid-nineteenth century. The majority of Maori carving from this period is more stylized than this figure. This naturalistic style may have been intended to emphasize the social or human side of the ancestor represented.
The Maori meeting house increased in size and height during the nineteenth century, due partly to European influence. Consequently poutokomanawa figures increased in size until the largest were around two meters high.
Suggested readings:
J.C.H. King (ed.), Human Image (London, The British Museum Press, 2000).
D.R. Simmons, te whare runanga: the Maori me (Auckland, Reed Books, 1997).
D.C. Starzecka (ed.), Maori Art and Culture, 2nd ed. (London, The British Museum Press, 1998).
N. Thomas, Oceanic Art (London, Thames and Hudson, 1995).
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Want to join the conversation?
Regarding the male figures of the Amo side posts, why were "the phalluses ... removed, probably after they were collected"? Were they collected in the British Victorian era with its restrictions of sexual expression? It is shameful how ignorant and disrespectful some people are to art and culture. Hopefully, there is more care nowadays (at least in Western civilization) when one comes across a cultural artifact, instead of destroying or discarding them, or blowing up statues of Buddha, for example.(8 votes)
I appreciate what you said! You are very respectful!(6 votes)
If the Maoris were the original inhabitants of New Zealand, then why is the population composed of more Europeans?(2 votes)
immigration, huge amounts of Europeans colonised the country. Today 14.6% of the population identify as Māori
In New Zealand today the Immigration rate is higher than the birth rate, thus the population is becoming more multicultural.(3 votes)
When they say that a carving is "carved in relief"; what is that supposed to mean?(3 votes)- Wikipedia: "Relief carving as a type of wood carving in which figures are carved in a flat panel of wood. The figures project only slightly from the background rather than standing freely. "
So it looks like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Vikingshiprelief.jpg(4 votes)
Looking at the pictures, I noticed this underneath:Lower figure (detail), House-board (amo), Maori, 1830-60 C.E., wood, haliotis shell, 152 x 43 x 15 cm, Poverty Bay district, New Zealand, Polynesia © Trustees of the British Museum
I am from New Zealand, and New Zealand is not in Polynesia.
Could this be removed from the image credits?(0 votes)- I am from Hawai'i on Aotearoa is part of Polynesia. I know you may be thinking that "We are our own country" and I respect that, but in a sense we are 'Ohana bounded by the language we speak and by the bonds that our cultures share. you are one the last nations of Polynesia that are independent, and try to keep that way. Us Hawaiians are still fighting for sovereignty and I don't want to see Aotearoa controlled by another nation again. So feel special and lucky that you are part of Polynesia and all of its beauty and wonder. Mahalo nui loa!(7 votes)
What tools were used to work the haliotis inlays?(3 votes)- Traditionally Maori used a mallet and adze:
http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/whakairo-maori-carving/page-2(2 votes)
why is there so little information about a wharenui for a site with a huge supply of information?(2 votes)
You're absolutely right, 17073! Until Khan Academy makes up the deficiency, everyone will have to go here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wharenui.(2 votes)
What is the poutuokwanma figure all about?(1 vote)- "an internal central post which supports the ridge-pole of a Maori meeting house. It represents an important ancestor of the tribal group which owned that house."
Central pole of building is important weight bearing structure, thus given sacred importance beyond it's function. The poutuokwanma (central pole) is dedicated to an important ancestor of the iwi (tribe).
The carving shown above is an important ancestor of the tribe Ngati Kahungunu.(3 votes)
why is the Poutokomanawa male?(1 vote)- Just a question, what are Whare Nui made of?(1 vote)
- The caption under the first photo lists several parts of the Marae being made of "boards". The pictures of several carvings show wood grain. So I'd surmise that these strutures were made of wood.(1 vote)
Is there a certain material they use to do these carvings? And is that material they use extinct?(1 vote)- The captions under many of the pictures identify the material as being wood (which is not extinct) and Haliotis Shell (otherwise known as Abalone) of which it is reported in Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abalone#Threat_of_extinction that "Abalones have been identified as one of the many classes of organism threatened with extinction due to overfishing, acidification of oceans from anthropogenic carbon dioxide,[48] as reduced pH erodes their shells. It is predicted[by whom?] that abalones will become extinct in the wild within 200 years at current rates of carbon dioxide production.(1 vote)
