Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth

Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth PDF Author: Frances Lennard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789088909719
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Barkcloth or tapa, a cloth made from the inner bark of trees, was widely used in place of woven cloth in the Pacific islands until the 19th century. A ubiquitous material, it was integral to the lives of islanders and used for clothing, furnishings and ritual artefacts. Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth takes a new approach to the study of the history of this region through its barkcloth heritage, focusing on the plants themselves and surviving objects in historic collections. This object-focused approach has filled gaps in our understanding of the production and use of this material through an investigation of this unique fabric's physical properties, transformation during manufacture and the regional history of its development in the 18th and 19th centuries.The book is the outcome of a research project which focused on three important collections of barkcloth at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. It also looks more widely at the value of barkcloth artefacts in museum collections for enhancing both contemporary practice and a wider appreciation of this remarkable fabric. The contributors include academics, curators, conservators and makers of barkcloth from Oceania and beyond, in an interdisciplinary study which draws together insights from object-based and textual reseach, fieldwork and tapa making, and information on the plants used to make fibres and colourants.This book will be of interest to tapa makers, museum professionals including curators and conservators; academics and students in the fields of anthropology, museum studies and conservation; museum visitors and anyone interested in finding out more about barkcloth.

Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth

Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth PDF Author: Frances Lennard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789088909719
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Get Book Here

Book Description
Barkcloth or tapa, a cloth made from the inner bark of trees, was widely used in place of woven cloth in the Pacific islands until the 19th century. A ubiquitous material, it was integral to the lives of islanders and used for clothing, furnishings and ritual artefacts. Material Approaches to Polynesian Barkcloth takes a new approach to the study of the history of this region through its barkcloth heritage, focusing on the plants themselves and surviving objects in historic collections. This object-focused approach has filled gaps in our understanding of the production and use of this material through an investigation of this unique fabric's physical properties, transformation during manufacture and the regional history of its development in the 18th and 19th centuries.The book is the outcome of a research project which focused on three important collections of barkcloth at The Hunterian, University of Glasgow; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. It also looks more widely at the value of barkcloth artefacts in museum collections for enhancing both contemporary practice and a wider appreciation of this remarkable fabric. The contributors include academics, curators, conservators and makers of barkcloth from Oceania and beyond, in an interdisciplinary study which draws together insights from object-based and textual reseach, fieldwork and tapa making, and information on the plants used to make fibres and colourants.This book will be of interest to tapa makers, museum professionals including curators and conservators; academics and students in the fields of anthropology, museum studies and conservation; museum visitors and anyone interested in finding out more about barkcloth.

Unearthing the Polynesian Past

Unearthing the Polynesian Past PDF Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824853482
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
Perhaps no scholar has done more to reveal the ancient history of Polynesia than noted archaeologist Patrick Vinton Kirch. For close to fifty years he explored the Pacific, as his work took him to more than two dozen islands spread across the ocean, from Mussau to Hawai'i to Easter Island. In this lively memoir, rich with personal—and often amusing—anecdotes, Kirch relates his many adventures while doing fieldwork on remote islands. At the age of thirteen, Kirch was accepted as a summer intern by the eccentric Bishop Museum zoologist Yoshio Kondo and was soon participating in archaeological digs on the islands of Hawai'i and Maui. He continued to apprentice with Kondo during his high school years at Punahou, and after obtaining his anthropology degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Kirch joined a Bishop Museum expedition to Anuta Island, where a traditional Polynesian culture still flourished. His appetite whetted by these adventures, Kirch went on to obtain his doctorate at Yale University with a study of the traditional irrigation-based chiefdoms of Futuna Island. Further expeditions have taken him to isolated Tikopia, where his excavations exposed stratified sites extending back three thousand years; to Niuatoputapu, a former outpost of the Tongan maritime empire; to Mangaia, with its fortified refuge caves; and to Mo'orea, where chiefs vied to construct impressive temples to the war god 'Oro. In Hawai'i, Kirch traced the islands' history in the Anahulu valley and across the ancient district of Kahikinui, Maui. His joint research with ecologists, soil scientists, and paleontologists elucidated how Polynesians adapted to their island ecosystems. Looking back over the past half-century of Polynesian archaeology, Kirch reflects on how the questions we ask about the past have changed over the decades, how archaeological methods have advanced, and how our knowledge of the Polynesian past has greatly expanded.

Unwrapping Tongan Barkcloth

Unwrapping Tongan Barkcloth PDF Author: Fanny Wonu Veys
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474283306
Category : Design
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Tongan barkcloth, made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry tree, still features lavishly in Polynesian ceremonies all over the world. Yet despite the attention paid to this textile by anthropologists and art historians alike, little is known about its history. Providing a unique insight into Polynesian material culture, this book explores barkcloth's rich cultural history, and argues that its manufacture, decoration and use are vehicles of creativity and female agency. Based on twelve years of extensive ethnographic and archival research, the book uncovers stories of ceremony, gender, the senses, religion and nationhood, from the 17th century up to the present-day. Placing the materiality of textiles at the heart of Tongan culture, Veys reveals not only how barkcloth was and continues to be made, but also how it defines what it means to be Tongan. Extending the study to explore the place of barkcloth in the European imagination, she examines international museum collections of Tongan barkcloth, from the UK and Italy to Switzerland and the USA, addressing the bias of the European 'gaze' and challenging traditional gendered understandings of the cloth. A nuanced narrative of past and present barkcloth manufacture, designs and use, Unwrapping Tongan Barkcloth demonstrates the importance of the textile to both historical and contemporary Polynesian culture.

The Journal of the Polynesian Society

The Journal of the Polynesian Society PDF Author: Polynesian Society (N.Z.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic journals
Languages : en
Pages : 674

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Book Description
Vols. for 1892-1941 contain the transactions and proceedings of the society.

The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia

The Pacific Arts of Polynesia and Micronesia PDF Author: Adrienne L. Kaeppler
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191539996
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the earth's surface. Comprising thousands of islands and hundreds of cultural groups, Polynesia and Micronesia cover a large part of this vast ocean, from the dramatic mountains of Hawaii to the small, flat coral islands of Kiribati. Including both traditional and contemporary arts, this book introduces the rich artistic traditions of these two regions, traditions that have had a considerable impact on western art in the twentieth century through the influence of artists such as Gauguin. Instead of looking at Polynesia and Micronesia separately, the book focuses on the artistic types, styles, and concepts that they share, placing each in its wider cultural context. From the textiles of Tonga to the canoes of Tahiti, Adrienne Kaeppler looks at religious and sacred rituals and objects, carving, architecture, tattooing, personal ornaments, basket-making, clothing, textiles, fashion, the oral arts, dance, music and musical instruments - even canoe-construction - to provide the ultimate introduction to the rich and vibrant artistic cultures of the Polynesian and Micronesian islands.

Memoirs of the Polynesian Society

Memoirs of the Polynesian Society PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anthropology
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description


First Contacts in Polynesia - the Samoan Case (1722-1848)

First Contacts in Polynesia - the Samoan Case (1722-1848) PDF Author: Serge Tcherkezoff
Publisher: ANU E Press
ISBN: 1921536020
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
This book explores the first encounters between Samoans and Europeans up to the arrival of the missionaries, using all available sources for the years 1722 to the 1830s, paying special attention to the first encounter on land with the Laperouse expedition. Many of the sources used are French, and some of difficult accessibility, and thus they have not previously been thoroughly examined by historians. Adding some Polynesian comparisons from beyond Samoa, and reconsidering the so-called 'Sahlins-Obeyesekere debate' about the fate of Captain Cook, 'First Contacts' in Polynesia advances a hypothesis about the contemporary interpretations made by the Polynesians of the nature of the Europeans, and about the actions that the Polynesians devised for this encounter: wrapping Europeans up in 'cloth' and presenting 'young girls' for 'sexual contact'. It also discusses how we can go back two centuries and attempt to reconstitute, even if only partially, the point of view of those who had to discover for themselves these Europeans whom they call 'Papalagi'. The book also contributes an additional dimension to the much-touted 'Mead-Freeman debate' which bears on the rules and values regulating adolescent sexuality in 'Samoan culture'. Scholars have long considered the pre-missionary times as a period in which freedom in sexuality for adolescents predominated. It appears now that this erroneous view emerged from a deep misinterpretation of Laperouse's and Dumont d'Urville's narratives.

Polynesia in Early Historic Times

Polynesia in Early Historic Times PDF Author: Douglas L. Oliver
Publisher: Bess Press
ISBN: 9781573061254
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
"This book presents a comprehensive and balanced description of major aspects of Polynesian cultures, using both the accounts of the European "discoverers" and the up-to-date writings of archaeologists and anthropologists".--BOOKJACKET.

Made in Oceania

Made in Oceania PDF Author: Peter Mesenhöller
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443887722
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
Both anthropologists and conservation scientists are fascinated by Oceanic barkcloth, or tapa, as it is known by its generic Polynesian term. Historic tapa designs are often living cultural heritage, but today’s objects also combine content, form and tradition in new ways and are intimately connected with the social and cultural identity of individuals, groups, and even nations. With tapa being completely alien to European traditions, conservation scientists are challenged by the material and its restoration and preservation. Questions of adequate presentation in exhibitions touch upon both disciplines, particularly when cultural requirements of the source communities come into play. This volume brings together presentations given at an interdisciplinary symposium on the social and cultural meanings, conservation and presentation of Oceanic tapa, organised and hosted by the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum of World Cultures and the Institute of Conservation Sciences, Cologne, in 2014. By presenting new, international, cutting-edge research from both disciplines, Made in Oceania offers unique insights into current museum practice, and connects historical research with recent social and cultural developments in the Pacific.

Pacific Tapa

Pacific Tapa PDF Author: Roger Neich
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824829292
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
Auckland Museum's collection of tapa cloth from around the Pacific is one of the most extensive in the world and it forms the basis of this comprehensive survey.