1884.61.39

Collection type

Object

Description

Paddle.

Geographical reference

Papua New Guinea

Oceania > Melanesia > Papua New Guinea

Bougainville Buka

Person

Maker Unknown Maker

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1872

Date collected

Between 1865 and 1872

Acquisition information

Donated: 1884

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Painted

Dimensions

Length: max 1420 mm, Width: max 160 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1884.61.39

Research and responses

This paddle illustration is first discussed publically in 1872 by Lane Fox at a BAAS meeting in Brighton, where he addressed the Anthropological Dept and said 'I determined to collect New-Ireland paddles, and see whether a connexion would be found to exist between the peculiar patterns with which they are ornamented. The result is the series now before you, which I have obtained at different times during the last seven years as they turned up in curiosity-shops or were brought over by travellers from the South Seas' hence the years given in the date made and date collected fields. [AP 25/10/2010]

See Plate IV 'The Evolution of Culture' (1875)[1906] which shows this series of clubs [this one is Fig 5]. The textual reference to this illustration is as follows [p 41]:

'Having noticed one or two allied varieties of design in specimens that came into my possession, I determined to collect all that I could find as they came to this country. In the course of several years I succeeded in obtaining the series represented upon Plate IV. The first figure [Fig 1] you will see clearly represents the head of a Papuan: the hair or wig is stuffed out, and the ears elongated by means of an ear ornament, after the manner of these people; the eyes are represented by two black dots, and the red line of the nose spreads over the forehead. This is the most realistic figure in the series [1884.61.29]. In the second figure [Fig 2] the face is somewhat conventionalised: the line of the nose passes in a coil round the eyes; there is a lozenge pattern on the forehead, representing probably a tattoo mark; the body is represented as sitting in full [1884.61.30]. In the third figure [Fig 3] the man is represented sitting sideways, simply by lopping off an arm and a leg on one side [1884.61.32]. In the fourth figure [Fig 4] the legs have disappeared [1884.61.33]. In the fifth figure [Fig 5] the whole body has disappeared [one side of the paddle blade 1884.61.35]. In the sixth figure [Fig 6] the nose has expanded at the base and the sides of the face are made to conform to the line of the nose; the elongated ears are there, but the ear ornament has gone: the nose of this figure is becoming the principal feature [the other side of the paddle blade 1884.61.35]. In the seventh figure [Fig 7] nothing but the nose is left: the sides of the face and mouth are gone; the ears are drawn along the side of the nose; the head is gone, but the lozenge pattern on the forehead still remains; the coil round the eyes has also disappeared and is replaced by a kind of leaf form, suggested by the upper lobe of the ear in the previous figures; the eyes are brought down into the nose [1884.61.36]. In the eighth figure [Fig 8] the ears are drawn at right angles to the nose [1884.61.37]. In the ninth figure [Fig 9] the nose has expanded at the base; all the rest is the same as in the last figure [1884.61.38]. In the tenth figure [Fig 10] lozenge pattern and the ears have disappeared, and a vestige of them only remains in the form of five points; the base of the nose is still further expanded into a half moon [1884.61.39]. In the last figure [Fig 11], nothing but a half moon remains [1884.61.40]. No one who compared this figure with the first of the series, without an explanation afforded by the intermediate links, would believe that it represented the nose of a human face. Unfortunately we do not know as yet the exact meaning of these designs, but when further information is obtained about them it will throw considerable light on similar transformations in prehistoric times.' [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]

Search terms: Navigation, Paddle