Necklace known as a rei, whale ivory carved in the shape of pigs, seats and testicles, strung on plaited sennit bound with hair. [ZM 01/04/2015]

Collection type: Object
Description: Necklace known as a rei, whale ivory carved in the shape of pigs, seats and testicles, strung on plaited sennit bound with hair. [ZM 01/04/2015]
Geographical reference: Cook Islands
Oceania > Polynesia > Cook Islands; Mangaia
Person: Field collector H. Jell; PRM source Irene Marguerite Beasley
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1939
Date collected: By 1939
Acquisition information: Donated: 1954
Materials and processes: Material Whale Tooth Animal, Material Sennit Coconut Seed Fibre Plant, Material Hair, Process Carved, Process Plaited, Process Bound
Dimensions: Length: max 620 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1954.9.211 Other numbers: Beasley no. D. 3148
Research and responses: This style of necklace is called a rei, see an example online from the Oldman collection (no. OL000479) in Te Papa Museum (New Zealand) http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/185698. This type of necklace was only worn by people of chiefly or high status. Whale ivory was prized for use in personal adornment and ceremonial presentation in the Cook Islands. For a similar examples from the Austral Islands see page 157 of Roger Neich and Fuli Pereira Pacific Jewelry and Adornment (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004) and pages 212-213 of Stephen Hooper Pacific Encounters Art & Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860 (Norwich: University of East Anglia, 2006). For an example from the Cook Islands see page 49 of Dale Idiens Cook Islands Art (GB: Shire Publications Ltd, 1990). In the literature the carved shapes of the whale pendants on this necklace are described as chief's seats (signifying authority, power, and status), pigs (signifying wealth), and testicles (signifying potency). [ZM 28/4/2016]

Search terms: Ornament, Status, Neck Ornament, Status Object

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