Navigation chart (rebbelib); wood splints tied with thread. Pandanus splints (for wave types) and cowrie shells (for islands).
Donor:
Frances McReynolds Smith
Collection place:
Marshall Islands
Culture or time period:
Marshallese and Micronesian
Materials:
Cowrie shell and Pandanus splints
Taxon:
Pandanus
Object type:
ethnography
Function:
1.4 Transportation, 7.1 Writing and Records (including religious texts), and 7.3 Weights, Measures, and Computing Devices
Context of use:
These are charts of groups of islands (rebbelib) as opposed to instructional (mattang) or local (meddo) charts. Screwpine leaves depict wave patterns while islands are represented by cowrie shells, as is the case with each of the maps. Aside from star configuration, Marshallese navigators used the water itself to navigate from shore to shore, observing characteristics such as the color, wave pattern, fauna, and even smells. However most navigators could travel from one atoll to another almost with their eyes closed, only feeling the currents pushing and pulling them. Using jukae, rubukae, and jeljeltae (first, second, and third zone currents) navigators can gauge their distance from land. These are most clearly depicted towards the lower right hand corner of 11-43895. Swells in each direction are also clearly seen on 11-43895 and 11-42979. Navigators could also steer relative to bwa ̄bwe, headwind, or kabbe, tailwind. The reason why Marshallese navigators can’t travel with their eyes completely closed is that there are some misleading currents, lutokļo̧kkan or korteļo̧k. These are represented by diagonal lines that run past atolls, seen in all of the maps. Rebbelib are usually rectangular but don’t have to be as seen in 11-45584.
Department:
Oceania
Comment:
cf. 11-39277, 11-42979, 11-43985, 11-45584 cf. Aberley, Doug. "The lure of mapping: An introduction." Boundaries of home: Mapping for local empowerment (1993): 1-7. Lyons, Henry. "The sailing charts of the Marshall Islanders." The Geographical Journal 72, no. 4 (1928): 325-327. Genz, Joseph. "Complementarity of cognitive and experiential ways of knowing the ocean in Marshallese navigation." Ethos 42, no. 3 (2014): 332-351. Genz, Joseph H. "Resolving ambivalence in Marshallese navigation: Relearning, reinterpreting, and reviving the “stick chart” wave models." Structure and Dynamics 9, no. 1 (2016).
Loans:
S2015-2016 #2: Berkeley Art Museum (February 18, 2015–June 7, 2016)