Club
Culacula with unusual decoration of fine incised grid. Very broad paddle clubs are cut from a single trunk of hardwood generally exceeding 1m in length and 60cm in width. They were never a very common style and were forbidden to commoners as they acted as the insignia of chiefly men. The name alludes to a particular species of crab with a serrated shell reflected in the toothed edge of the club’s bell-curve shaped blade. Culacula often have a pair of eye-like motifs engraved on each face and were believed to become supernatural beings once distinguished in battle. Kinikini were associated with religious rituals and were seen as portable god-vessels and the insignia of priestly status.
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- E2025
- 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
- 1880
