Final Exam Art of the Pacific Flashcards
What is Mana?
Mana: Sacred Power
• Mana is an invisible but forceful spiritual substance
- It links humans with the gods
- Chief is born with mana
- One can increase one’s mana depending on association with chief/chief’s family
- Increase mana=brave and courageous behavior
- Decrease mana=cowardly behavior or enslavement
Mana in Art
- In ART, mana enables artists to be creative and imbue works of art with that power.
- Mana in art:
– comes from the materials from which they are made
– Mana of the artist
– Careful attention to rituals
– Status of the owners
– Heirlooms, passed from generation to generation, can increase in mana
Male Figure
early to mid–20th century
Asmat people
Wood, paint, fiber, shell, cassowary quills
TREE PEOPLE
Legs & feet = roots
Torso= trunk
Arms & hands = branches
Head = Fruit
Bis Pole
late 1950s
Asmat people
sago palm tree, paint, fiber
Balance
Tree unearthed with roots all but one system cut off and stood on beach roots up
Represents individual who has just died
Large openings for severed heads
Feast under Bis Pole after head hunting
Circle of life fertility
Bis pole allowed to degenerate on beach
Figures on top always male with phallis like protrosion
Curviliniear shapes
Allusion of symmetry
Moai
Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
1100 - 1650
Volcanic Tuft
Long sloping noses, deep eyes, prominent chin
Ring coast line, facing inward
Slit Gong
mid- to late 1960s
Commissioned by Tain Mal, carved by Tin Mweleun
Vanuatu, Ambrym Island, Fanla village
Wood, paint
Represent primordial voice of ancestors
Spirals tusks of wild boars - power
Not meant to last - form continues not object
Can be activated with palm
Massed together, used for communication
Stick God (Akua Ka’ai)
18th – early 19th century
Hawai’i
Wood
can contain spirit/god
gaping mouth, hands on hips, bent knees - power
personalized like crest for family
Feather god
From Hawaii, Polynesia
Possibly 18th century CE
Now in the British Museum, London
War god - carried into battle
Crest/Cheif regalia - reference to leadership
Archival Photograph of Maori Chief
1800s
Moko (tattooing)
Expression of mana
strength, protector, leader, power, fierceness
House Post Figure
New Zealand, Maori Peoples
c. 1800
Wood
LEGEND OF RUATEPUPUKE
son captured by sea, turned into post and rescued, inadvertantly brings wood carving to island
Bent knee - power, reflexivness
Posts speak - comes from artistic quality
Gaze, tongue - intimitdation, antagonization
Te Hau-ki-Turnga Meeting House
Maori
1842-45
Wood, shell, grass, flax and pigment
The structure of the meeting house itself represents the body of a primordial ancestor — the ridge pole of the roof is the spine, the rafters the ribs, the gable boards on the exterior the outstretched arms, and the gable ornament at the peak of the roof the face.
The ridge pole of the roof is ALSO the chief’s lineage, the rafters the passage of that lineage through time.
Pendant, Hei Tiki
Maori peoples, New Zealand
19th century
Jade, haliotis shell
Maori Aesthetic Concepts
- Boldly 3-D forms covering the surface with intricate designs
- Curvilinear style; spiraling patterns
- Emphasis on the head (seat of manna)
- Success of art is the awe and fear it inspires in viewers
Eagle Pendant
11th–16th century
Costa Rica
Cast gold
Emphasis on feet, vulture head bird of prey
double-headed snake and fish
Water, Land, and Sky
Tabard
15th–16th century
Peru; Inca
Cotton, feathers
Anthropormorphic birds
Complimentary colors
quadrants composition
Four-Cornered Hat
5th–9th century
Peru, Wari
Camelid hair (Alpaca)
Bird Pendant
1st–5th century
Costa Rica
Jadeite
highly abstracted
beak v-shape lays against body
Tapirage
Tapirage - plucking the feathers of a bird, and then rubbing the bird’s skin with secretions from toxic tree frogs. These secretions cause feathers to be tinged yellow, orange, or red.
Dates
1100-1650 : Moai
1800 : House Post Figure/Archival Photograph
1842 - 45 : Meeting House
1950 : Bis Pole
1960 : Slit Gong
Centuries
1st - 5th Bird Pendant
5th - 9th Four-Cornered Hat
11th - 16th Eagle Pendant
15th - 16th Tabard
18th Stick God / Feathered God
19th Jade Pendant
20th Male Figure
