jun 17, 1820 - Staff god
Description:
Late 18th to Early 19th century
Wood, tapa, fiber and feathers
Rarotonga (Cook Islands)
FORM: This elongated object is made up of wood, tapa, fiber, and feathers and is in the form
of a staff
FUNCTION: The function is not really known by historians, but it definitely is represented as a sacred item, and is said to represent ancestral power.
CONTENT: large column head-like wooden shaft which is placed upright; lagr head on top and
several heads carved below it; polished pearl shells and red feathers that are placed inside the bark cloth next to the interior shaft; the shaft itself is in the form of an elongated body; central carved wooden shaft around which a roll of tapa is placed
CONTEXT: most of these staff gods have been destroyed by being thrown in the village
square in front of a European style church which represents the fall of one faith and the influence of another, which is evident throughout the history of the Cook Islands.
-It protects the ancestral power of the deity and it contains it within diff. layers
Added to timeline:
APAH Timeline
Date:
Images:
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