Carved wood, quadrangular in cross-section, with tapered handle; each flat surface grooved: two have linear grooves, two have zigzag shapes.
Donor:
Paul Ogden
Collection place:
Hawaiian Islands
Verbatim coll. place:
Hawaii
Culture or time period:
Hawaiian
Collector:
John Ogden
Collection date:
1870-1889
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Tapa beaters
Function:
1.6 Manufacturing, Constructing, Craft, and Professional Pursuits
Context of use:
For making tapa cloth. Used in bark cloth productions; bark is beaten into pliable flat strips on wood anvil (kua); zigzag grooving on this type of beater gives the finished product a "watermark".
Department:
Oceania
Dimensions:
length 41 centimeters
Comment:
Description: "16 and 18 grooves and the design is "pu`ili halua", 2 variants, f and c., Fig. 121." "Wd. (each side) 1 3/8 in." Native Name: "pu`ili halua" design" Materials, techniques: "Carved with shark's tooth knife (pre-metal tools)" Use Context: "Made by male specialists for use by women." (bark is beaten) "first with "hohoa", round beaters" "Quadrangular type for finishing. Barkcloth, "kapa", made by women." Back of card: "Hawaiian beaters (i`e), the rounded beater (hohoa) for preliminary work and the angled beater with a "watermark" design (i`e halua koeau) for finishing the cloth and imprinting an uncolored pattern mark on the surface." References: "Hiroa, Te Rangi (Peter Buck), "Arts and Crafts of Hawaii", grooves, p. 170, Fig. 110; design p. 178, Fig. 121" "Exhibited 1978 Settlement of Polynesia." Provenience: "Hawaiian Islands" (fide Barbara (Kanani) Burns, August 11, 1983)
Loans:
S1977-1978 #21: Doe Library (UC Berkeley) (December 7, 1977–March 9, 1978) and S1994-1995 #10: SFO Museum (April 7, 1995–July 26, 1995)