Paina figure
Paina figures were over three meters tall, human statues from the Easter Island culture that had ritual significance. They were made from perishable materials - wood, totora reeds and tapa bark fiber - so that no examples have survived today.
Appearance and meaning
A very clear description of the Paina figure comes from Alfred Métraux according to the Rapanui tradition, which he collected on Easter Island in 1934:
- “The large idol, painted in black, yellow and red, consisted of a hollow frame made of wood and totora reeds , covered with tapa bark. A man could climb in and see and speak through his open mouth. The head wore a wreath of frigate bird feathers , the eyebrows were made of black feathers. The painted eyes had eyeballs made from a slice of bone from a human skull and pupils made from black conch shells. There were both male and female figures who could be distinguished by their individual tattoos or painting. Male statuettes had vertical lines on their necks, while females had points on their foreheads and a black triangle on each cheek. "
The ritual meaning of the idols is unclear. It is possible that the production of a Paina figure was originally linked to the erection of a Moai and was intended to replace the much more elaborate and expensive stone statue. She could therefore represent revered and deified ancestors. The French missionary Brother Eugène Eyraud (born February 5, 1820 in Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur , † August 19, 1868 in Hanga Roa ), who stayed on Easter Island from 1867 to 1868, mentions the figure in connection with one of one lavish feasts accompanied the festivity in which the entire island population took part. The religious celebration took place annually in summer and lasted for several days. The bundles for the Paina figures were assembled from the twigs and reeds that had covered and protected the food.
Written certificates
Although no specimens have survived in the collections, there are written testimonies from early European visitors describing Paina figures:
Don Felipe Gonzáles de Haedo
Don Felipe Gonzáles de Haedo visited Easter Island in November 1770 on behalf of Manuel d'Amat i de Junyent , the viceroy of Peru . He has obviously seen Paina figures himself and describes them as follows:
"You have another transportable and clothed image or idol of four Varas [approx. 3.35 m] length, more precisely a " Judas ", stuffed with hay or straw. It has arms and legs and roughly made eyes, nostrils and a mouth sit in the head. It is also crowned with a wreath of black hair made from rushes that hang down halfway down the back. On certain days they carry this idol to their meeting place and from the clear gestures that some performed, we suspect that it is for lust . They call it "Copeca". "
Jean-François de La Pérouse
The French explorer and circumnavigator Jean-François de La Pérouse spent a day on Easter Island on April 10, 1786. A Paina figure stood in front of an ahu on which not all the stone statues stood upright:
“Close to the last statue, we caught sight of a rush-made doll ten feet tall, which represented a human-like figure. Her suit consisted of the white witness that is made here in the country; her head was the usual size of a human head; the body was somewhat gaunt, but the feet were fairly proportioned. Around her neck was hung a net shaped like a basket and covered with white witness. It seemed to us that there were herbs in it. Beside this sack we noticed another one, only two feet [approx. 70 cm] high figure, represented by a child with arms crossed over one another and legs hanging down. By all means, it may not have been many years since this doll was placed here. "
Katherine Routledge
The British historian Katherine Routledge (born March 11, 1866 in Darlington , † December 13, 1935 in Ticehurst , East Sussex ) led a multi-year archaeological expedition to Easter Island during the First World War , together with her husband, the doctor William Scoresby Routledge her private yacht Mana . She writes about the Paina characters:
“The“ Paina ”, which simply means picture or figure, was dedicated by the family to the father or brother as proof of appreciation, be he still alive or already deceased. It was a significant matter, and the original rules for the ceremony came from a supernaturally powerful individual named "Ivi-Atua" [a high-ranking priest]. The paina was a large figure made of intertwined rods, and the bearer crawled in and could see through his mouth. The figure had a crown made from the feathers of a special sea bird called "makohe" and long ears. Sometimes it was built in a place where, for example, a man had been murdered. The most interesting thing about the Paina figure, however, is that the usual place where it was set up was a ceremonial platform (ahu) with stone figures on its landward side. On most, if not all, of the ahu, you can still see the holes in the grass or on the pavement where the Paina figures once stood. They were held by four long ropes, one of which was led across the platform. "
Museum copies
There are no Paina figures in the collections of the ethnological museums, but some smaller statuettes provide information about their appearance and construction. The Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology of Harvard University in Cambridge (Massachusetts) is of two male figures made of wooden sticks, Totora and tapa cloth are made. The seated, 40 and 48 cm high sculptures could, at least that's the opinion of Thor Heyerdahl , be models or smaller replicas of Paina figures. The origin of the exhibits is unknown. They came to the museum in 1850 as a gift from the private collection of art patron David P. Kimball from Boston. The seal hunter Captain John Crocker from New London (Connecticut) may have brought them with him from Easter Island in 1805 on the schooner Nancy .
In the Ulster Museum Belfast there is an arm about 40 cm long, made of tapa with a filling of rushes, which may once have been part of a Paina figure. Assuming normal proportions, the corresponding figure should have been around four feet tall. The four surviving fingernails are in the shape of claws made from animal teeth (probably from a dog), which suggests that the figure was made after the first European contact. The arm and another small tapa figure come from the collection of the wealthy banker's son, world traveler and collector Gordon Augustus Thomson (born September 21, 1799 in Castleton, † June 7, 1886 in Belfast) and came to the museum in 1836. Who brought them from Easter Island can no longer be determined.
Remarks
- ↑ Since the creator of the figure, Gordon Augustus Thomson, kept no records of his acquisitions, it is probable, but not certain, that the arm actually came from Easter Island.
Individual evidence
- ^ Alfred Métraux: Ethnology of Easter Island , Honolulu 1940, pp. 344-345
- ^ Jo Anne van Tilburg: Easter Island - Archeology, Ecology and Culture , London 1994, p. 85
- ^ Eugène Eyraud: Lettre au TRP Supérieur géneral de la Congregátion des Sacrés-Coers de Jésus de Marie; engl. Translation by Ann M. Altmann: Early Visitors to Easter Island, 1864-1877 , The Easter Island Foundation, Los Osos 2004, p. 17
- ^ Bolton Glanville Corney: The voyage of Captain Don Felipe González in the ship of the line San Lorenzo, with the frigate Santa Rosalia , Cambridge 1903, p. 95
- ↑ La Perouse'ns journey of discovery in the years 1785, 1786, 1787 and 1788, translated from French by JR Forster and EL Sprengel, Berlin 1799, p 218
- ^ Katherine Routledge: The Mystery of Easter Island , London 1919, p. 233
- ^ A b Thor Heyerdahl: The Art of Easter Island, Bertelsmann, Munich-Gütersloh-Vienna, 1975
- ^ Heide-Margaret Esen-Baur: Seven Tapa (bark fiber) works from Easter Island ; in: 1500 Years of Easter Island, catalog for the exhibition of the same name from April 5 to September 3, 1989 in the Senckenberg Museum Frankfurt, Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1989, pp. 139–144