- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Wooden club with broad flattened blade and small pronounced spur, (Sali) [FC 06/09/2011]
- Long description
- Wooden club with broad flattened blade and extremely pronounced spur, (Sali). The greater portion of the head is ornamented on both sides with deeply incised and closely set parallel crossed lines with a band of zigzag decoration. There is a raised crest down the centre of the top of the blade head. A dotted pattern has been incised on the underside of the spur and there is a chip at the edge of the spur. The handle is has been bound the entire length with plaited sennit, with a gap where the wood shows through and the inscription has been written on the club. The handle has a flat butt end with rim. There are areas of black staining on the ornamented club head. [FC 06/09/2011]
- Person
- Maker Unknown Maker
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
- Date / Period
- Date made: Possibly before 1874
- Date collected
- ?By 1874
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1884
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Material Sennit Coconut Seed Fibre Plant, Process Carved, Process Bound, Process Plaited
- Dimensions
- Length: max 910 mm, Width: max 195 mm, Depth: max 35 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1884.12.134 PR Cat other PR nos: 518
- Research and responses
Sali or 'gunstock' club. See F Clunie 'Fijian Weapons and Warfare' 1977 Fiji Museum, Suva, Bulletin of the Fiji Museum no.2 and R. Ewins, Fijian Artefacts: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery collection' Australia 1982: p.41 "Gata ('snake' clubs). These commonly used clubs possessed a short 'spur' on the back of the 'head', and the head was bevelled to a cutting edge designed to break bones. The 'cheeks' of this edge were ofthen roughened and the head frequently curved, with the cutting edge invariably on the inside curve, scythe like. These clubs have often been called 'gunstock' clubs, but they were all ancient designs certainly not imitating gun stocks. The Sali, Cali or Tebetebe were an extreme variant of the Gata, with broad flattened blade and extremely pronounced spur. The cheeks, instead of being merely roughened were generally carved with geometric patterns. The head was effectively a scythe and the spur used for piercing. [FC 08/08/2011]
Although commonly called a "gunstock club," the form of this club is actually based on the sali flower of a plant in the banana family. Some clubs were used for dancing only, others for fighting or prestige display. Each type of Fijian club was designed to inflict a certain type of wound. The shape of this club was meant to cut through and snap bone. [FC 08/08/2011]
1884.12.134
Wooden club with broad flattened blade and small pronounced spur, (Sali) [FC 06/09/2011]
1884.12.134
Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
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