Nifo'oti
| Nifo'oti | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Information | |
| Weapon type: | Percussion weapon |
| Designations: | Tooth at the end, Bill Hooked Knife, Deadly Tooth, Dancing Knife, Head Knife, Hook Club, War Knife |
| Use: | Weapon, traditional weapon, cultural weapon |
| Working time: | til today |
| Region of origin / author: |
Samoa |
| Distribution: | Samoa |
| Handle: | Wood, metal |
| Lists on the subject | |
The Nifo'oti (also Nifo oti , Samoan : Zahn am Ende , also Bill Hooked Knife , Deadly Tooth , Head Knife or Hook Club ) is a club from Samoa . It is used as a tool, weapon and cult object.
history
The hooked club Nifoʻoti was developed by the Samoans as a weapon of war, but as an imitation of western forms. Already 20 years after James Cook's arrival, they were considered an indigenous form. Over time it became a cult object that is still used in rites and dances (dance club) today.
description
The Nifoʻoti is made of hardwood (pau, roa). It's made roughly like a short boat paddle. In contrast to other oceanic clubs, the shape is monolinear and axially symmetrical. One side is equipped with a kind of hook, the other side is equipped with a wavy row of teeth that are pointed and tapered at the ends. At the lower end, the face becomes narrower and forms the handle . The other sides of the Nifo'oti are sharp.
Usually the surface is decorated with traditional patterns and carvings and inlays. These are carved in with a shark tooth. While human figures in Tonga, fish, birds or dogs are used as motifs have Samoan clubs wave and zigzag lines, squares or small triangles, which the Trochusmuschel ( trochidae symbolize).
Versions made after colonization kept the name, but looked more like a cutlass or machete and consisted of metal blades with a hook on the top. This version is the steel nifoʻoti .
literature
- Te Rangi Hiroa : Samoan material culture. (= Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin ; 75). Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu 1930. Therein chapter: The Unilateral-Toothed and Hook Clubs , pp. 603-605.
- George Cameron Stone : A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications, Mineola, New York 1999, ISBN 0-486-40726-8 , p. 469 [1] .
- Sean Mallon: Samoan art and artists. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 2002, ISBN 0-8248-2675-2 , pp. 94-95 (with illustration).
- Ad Linkels: Fa'a-Samoa. The Samoan way between conch shell and disco. A portrait of Western Samoa at the end of the twentieth century. Mundo Étnico Foundation, Tilburg 1995, ISBN 90-72840-09-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nifo'oti (1899.62.718) in the Pitt Rivers Museum. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
- ^ Sean Mallon: Samoan art and artists. University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 2002, ISBN 0-8248-2675-2 , p. 94.