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tiki

 
Dictionary: ti·ki   (') pronunciation
n., pl., -kis.
  1. Tiki Mythology. A male figure in Polynesian myth, sometimes identified as the first man.
  2. A wooden or stone image of a Polynesian god.
  3. A Maori figurine representing an ancestor, often intricately carved from greenstone and worn about the neck as a talisman.

[Maori.]


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Word Origins: tiki
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from Marquesan
This word originated in Marquesas Islands

Art and religion, past and present combine in the Polynesian figure of the tiki. It is a stone or wood carving in simplified human shape, sometimes small enough to be worn as an ornament, sometimes so large as to tower over a human visitor. In the Marquesas, tikis were carved on bowls and dishes, clubs and canoe paddles, as well made into separate statues and amulets. The typical tiki is a powerful figure with hands clasped over its stomach, a large flat nose, round eyes, and an elliptical mouth. Tiki is said to be the ancestor and creator of humans.

English speakers first learned of tikis from accounts of Captain James Cook's eighteenth-century expeditions to the South Pacific, where tikis are mentioned as early as 1777. Two centuries later, in a twist of cultural history, tikis conquered California. In their new habitat they may be tacky, but tiki is now alive and well among the natives of the west coast of the United States.

The first wave of the tiki invasion came between 1945 and 1965, when bars and family rooms added bamboo and copies of the Polynesian stone tikis. The second wave is now. "In the United States," explained a 1996 article by Richard von Busack in a Silicon Valley newspaper, "tiki can refer to a whole range of popular ersatz exotica that some aficionados claim represents a form of suburban rebellion. Throughout the valley, look hard enough and you can find old bachelor apartments with names like The Palms and Moana Lei. These relics are adorned with features that turn up again and again: dead sockets that once held colored floodlights, surrounded by unkillable palms; the Tiki Rooms for cocktail parties; the peculiar lagoon-like curve of the kidney-shaped swimming pool." There are collectors of the tiki mugs that were once given out by tiki bars, and there is a "suburban art" movement called Polynesian Pop.

The original tiki came to the English language from two Malayo-Polynesian languages: Maori, spoken in present day New Zealand, and Marquesan, spoken in the Marquesas Islands by about 10,000 people nowadays. Marquesan is a close relative also of Tongan, Samoan, Tahitian, and Hawaiian, and along with them shares the honor of introducing to English words like tapa (1823, cloth) and mahi-mahi (1943, fish).



Wikipedia: Tiki
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A Māori man retouches the painted tattoo on a carved wooden tiki at Whakarewarewa Model Village, New Zealand, 1905.

Tiki refers to large wood and stone carvings of humanoid forms in Central Eastern Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean. The term is also used as it relates to Māori mythology where Tiki is the first man.

In Polynesian mythology (specifically: Maori), Tiki is the first man, created by either Tu Matauenga or Tane. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond. She seduced him and he became the father of Hine-Kau-Ataata. Also in Polynesian mythology, a tiki or hei tiki is a kind of sculpture which results in a carving in the shape of a god. Each tiki houses a spirit. The creation of tikis is known from all over Polynesia.

According to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) legend, Hotu Matu'a, the first chief brought along a moai symbolizing ancestors, which became the model for the large moai. Dr. Jo Anne Van Tilburg of the Easter Island Statue Project at UCLA, opines that the first tiki, or stone statues, originated on Rapa Nui, although some contend that the first statues originated in the Marquesas or Austral Islands in present day Tahiti (French Polynesia).

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Carved images

In Māori usage, the word 'tiki' is the name given to large wooden carvings in roughly human shape. The carvings often serve to mark the boundaries of sacred or significant sites.[citation needed] The word appears as tiki in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and Marquesan; as tiʻi in Tahitian, and as kiʻi in Hawaiian. The word has not been recorded from the languages of Western Polynesia or of Rapanui (Easter Island).

Mythology

In traditions from the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand, the first human is a woman created by Tāne, god of forests and of birds. Usually her name is Hine-ahu-one. In other legends, Tāne makes the first man Tiki, then makes a wife for him. In some West Coast versions, Tiki himself, as a son of Rangi and Papa, creates the first human by mixing his own blood with clay, and Tāne then makes the first woman. Sometimes Tūmatauenga, the war god, creates Tiki.[1] In another story the first woman is Mārikoriko. Tiki marries her and their daughter is Hine-kau-ataata (White 1887-1891, I:151-152). [2] In some traditions, Tiki is the penis of Tāne (Orbell 1998:178, Tregear 1891:510-511). In fact, Tiki is strongly associated with the origin of the procreative act.[3] Here is one story of Tiki among the many variants:

Tiki was lonely and craved company. One day, seeing his reflection in a pool, he thought he had found a companion, and dived into the pool to seize it. The image shattered and Tiki was disappointed. He fell asleep and when he awoke he saw the reflection again. He covered the pool with earth and it gave birth to a woman. Tiki lived with her in innocence, until one day the woman was excited by an eel. Her excitement passed to Tiki and the first procreative act resulted (Reed 1963:52).

Names and epithets

J. White names several Tiki or perhaps manifestations of Tiki (White 1887-1891, I:142):

  • Tiki-tohua, the progenitor of birds[4]
  • Tiki-kapakapa, the progenitor of fish and of a bird, the tui [5]
  • Tiki-auaha, the progenitor of humankind
  • Tiki-whakaeaea, the progenitor of the kūmara

Elsewhere in Polynesia

  • In Hawaiian traditions the first man was Kumuhonua. He was made by Kāne, or by Kāne, , and Lono. His body was made by mixing red earth with saliva. He was made in the shape of Kāne, who carried the earth from which the man was made from the four corners of the world. A woman was made from one of his ribs. Kanaloa was watching when Kāne made the first man, and he too made a man, but could not bring him to life. Kanaloa then said to Kāne, “I will take your man, and he will die.” And so death came upon mankind (Tregear 1891:151).
  • In Tahiti, Tiʻi was the first man, and was made from red earth. The first woman was Ivi who was made from one of the bones (ivi) of Tiʻi (Tregear 1891:151) .
  • In the Marquesas there are various accounts. In one legend Atea and his wife created people. In another tradition Atanua and her father Atea brought forth human beings (Tregear 1891:151).
  • In the Cook Islands, traditions also vary. At Rarotonga, Tiki is the guardian of the entrance to Avaiki, the underworld. Offerings were made to him as gifts for the departing soul of someone who is dying. At Mangaia, Tiki is a woman, the sister of Veetini, the first person to die a natural death. The entrance to Avaiki (the underworld) is called ‘the chasm of Tiki’ (Tregear 1891:151).

See also

  • Hei-tiki, Māori neck pendants, sometimes erroneously called tiki
  • Moai, a monolithic human figure on Easter Island, sometimes erroneously called tiki
  • Tiki culture, the decorative style inspired by tiki

Notes

  1. ^ Tūmatauenga, god of war, represents man, as does Tāne, whose name means 'man'
  2. ^ John White attributes this version to Ngāti Hau
  3. ^ According to Reed, 'it is certain that Tiki... has a definite phallic significance' (1963:52). However Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck) pointed out that such references were only found in one late and controversial source (1974).
  4. ^ In this story, Tiki-tohua was an egg produced by Hine-ahu-one, a woman made by Tāne to be his wife. This egg gave rise to all the birds (Shortland 1882:22).
  5. ^ Tiki-kapakapa (born after Tiki-tohua) was a girl who later took the name Hine-a-tauira. She and Tāne had a daughter named Hine-titamauri who was given to Tiki as his wife (Shortland 1882:22)

References

  • T. R. Hiroa (Sir Peter Buck), The Coming of the Maori. Second Edition. First Published 1949. Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs) 1974.
  • M. Orbell, The Concise Encyclopedia of Māori Myth and Legend (Canterbury University Press: Christchurch), 1998.
  • A. W. Reed, Treasury of Maori Folklore (A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington), 1963.
  • E. Shortland, Maori Religion and Mythology (Longman, Green, London), 1882.
  • E. R. Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary (Lyon and Blair, Lambton Quay), 1891.
  • J. White, The Ancient History of the Maori, 6 Volumes (Government Printer, Wellington), 1887-1891.

Best of the Web: tiki
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Some good "tiki" pages on the web:


Polynesian Mythology
www.pantheon.org
 
 
 
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Hawaiian Tiki Room (2003 Album by Various Artists)
Thor Heyerdahl (Explorer/Anthropologist)
Kon-Tiki (1951 Culture & Society Film)

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Word Origins. The World in So Many Words, by Allan A. Metcalf. Copyright © 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tiki" Read more

 

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