Club
Called totokia, or beaked battle-hammer, was probably developed and descended from the i tuki battle hammers, heirloom clubs were passed down through the generations of Fijian families giving it a history of at least several centuries. It was designed to drive or ‘peck’ a neat hole through the enemy’s skull, the weight of the bulky head being concentrated in the point of the beak or kedi-toki. These clubs were much carried by chiefs in both life and death and according to tradition were particularly favoured for murder and in skirmish warfare in thick bush, the heavy head driving the beak through the skull without a long warning swing likely to alert the target or catch on undergrowth. The carved decoration near to the butt of the club is typically Fijian.
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- 38/1923/1
- Category
- Ethnography
- Collection Class
- Arms and armour
- Collection Area Region
- POLYN
- Material
- wood
- Common Name
- club
- Simple Name
- club
- Production Country
- Fiji
- Production Year High
- 1875
