IDNO

P.99724.VH

Description

“Viti Levu? horn clubs, food hanger, figure.” [von Hügel’s caption]

F.H. Dufty photograph of two lialiakau or matakau images from Fijian spirithouses, flanked on the left by a wakakiakavo and on the right a sali or cali war club, both clubs being vividrasa, or bound with fine magimagi coconut fibre cordage haft wrappings. These items are framed by liku skirts and a long rope studded with small white cowrie shells symbolic of spiritual authority. The whereabouts of the smaller image standing on a multi-pronged offering hook is unknown. The larger image, which was collected by Rev. William Floyd, is now in the Fiji Museum. Carved from damanu (Calophyllum) wood and with wrought-iron nail nipples, it is wearing a since lost sisi or sperm whale tooth necklace that has been smoked and oiled, and a brief malo loincloth studded with white cowrie shells with a long loop studded with white cowries dangling from it, also since lost. The photograph is particularly important for the face-painting details, which have long since been removed. This is a unique view of a dressed and painted Fijian ancestor image.
Circa 1875-1876. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003, description from record P.52441.VH, JD 19/10/2016]

Place

Oceania Polynesia; Fiji; ?Viti Levu

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Dufty, Francis Herbert (Dufty Brothers, Levuka)

Collector / Expedition

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Date

circa 1874 - 1878

Collection Name

von Hügel Collection

Source

von Hügel, Anatole (Baron)

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.99674.VH to P.99724.VH are in A.174.VH. The album was formerly kept in paper archive Large Box G; VH1/4/5. It has now been transferred to the photo archive. The lists describing the contents of this box have been returned to the Paper Archive.

Related Image: This print or negative appears to be a unique image within the MAA Photograph Collections. [JD 10/12/2011]

Bibliographical Reference: For further information see F.Clunie, 1986, Yalo i Viti; K.E. Larsson, 1960, Fijian Studies, Etnologiska Studier, 25. [Fergus Clunie, 14/7/2003]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund. [A. Nadin, 4/9/2003]