Rei-Miro
Rei Miro is a wooden pectoral of Easter Island culture. It has a crescent moon shape, which can also be interpreted as a Polynesian canoe . Its exact meaning - cult object, jewelry or badge of rank - is not known. Rei Miro is a combination of the Polynesian terms rei (German: breast ornament, pectoral) and miro (German: wood).
description
Various forms are known to Rei Miro. The most common scheme is a crescent-shaped board of symmetrical shape, made of finely carved and polished wood. Along the concave top runs a thin, deepened groove, the meaning of which is unknown. One side is i. d. R. slightly arched and smooth, the other (the front?) Is provided with a crescent-shaped recess.
The two tips are decorated in most of the specimens, predominantly with a fully sculpted human head, which in profile resembles that of the Moai Kavakava, but without the characteristic elongated earlobes. The oppositely worked heads are inclined with the face inward and have pointed beards rolled outward. Some Rei Miro have shells or chicken heads instead of the faces .
Almost without exception, the existing specimens have two bores in the middle of the concave upper side, and in a few the neck cord made of human hair has been preserved.
Only two Rei Miro, they are now in the British Museum in London , are decorated with Rongorongo characters . One copy has only two characters between the two holes for the suspension cord, the other has a tape with 46 elements along the convex bottom.
Deviating from the basic shape, there are some Rei Miro in the shape of animal bodies, but they are not designed symmetrically. In the Berenice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu there is a Rei Miro made from a curved chicken body and in the Ethnographic Collection of the University of Göttingen one in the shape of a curved fish. These specimens also have the characteristic, crescent-shaped recess on the front and the holes for a hanging cord.
The dimensions are very different, the standard shape with the two heads is between 24 and 92 cm long, 7 to 35 cm high and about 3 cm thick.
material
The Rei Miro in the collections are mainly carved from Toromiro wood; other materials are rarer. In the Berenice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu there is an already heavily weathered specimen made of whale bones , the ends of which are undecorated.
meaning
It can be considered certain that the Rei Miro were worn on the chest by high-ranking people, possibly only on ritual occasions. Kapitänleutnant Geiseler, the leader of the German South Sea expedition of 1882, considered the pectorals to be badges of rank:
“In individual cases, these breast shields are still provided with characters like on the wooden panels, which should refer to the owner and his rank. At both ends of it there are deities carved in semi-sublime work. "
The interpretation as a crescent moon or as a boat is still controversial. Thor Heyerdahl prefers the boat shape and points to corresponding depictions of boats made of Totora reeds on Easter Island, which have an obvious resemblance to the shape of the pectorals. This view is also supported by the settlement myths that exist on almost all islands in the South Pacific - the legend of Hotu Matua on Easter Island . The large mythical boat in which the settlers originally set out is represented in one form or another in almost all Polynesian cultures. It is always shown in profile, as a stylized, horizontal, crescent-like shape, the ends of which are bent upwards.
The ethnological and ideological context speaks for the interpretation as a crescent moon. According to Alfred Métraux , Rei Miro were carried during the ceremonies to plant the kumara ( sweet potato ), an important staple food on Easter Island today. In many regions of Polynesia, rongo was the god of the sweet potato (generally of agricultural products, but on some islands also the god of thunder, rain and rainbow) and the male personification of the moon . On Easter Island, the creator god make make is associated with rites for planting sweet potatoes. Rei-Miro were worn on the occasion of festivals when the sweet potato was planted. Father Zumbohm, one of the first missionaries on Easter Island, saw make make as the chief judge who punishes with thunder and lightning. It is conceivable that rongo transformed into make make in the centuries of isolation on the remote Easter Island . Through this recourse to the Polynesian pantheon , the interpretation of the Rei-Miro form as a crescent moon becomes conceivable.
Ritual use
Rei-Miro were attributes of the chiefs' special power and authority. Reports from European explorers suggest that they were worn by high-ranking women of the chief families on festivals and other special occasions to document that they were of high birth. Although associated with femininity, Rei-Miro were also worn by the ariki mau , the chief of the powerful Miru clan , who had an outstanding ritual significance in island society. At high festivals he wore no fewer than six Rei-Miro around his neck and over his shoulder.
The Rei-Miro is also a commonly used character in the Rongorongo script. Engravings and drawings in the form of Rei-Miro have been found on stone chicken houses on Easter Island ( hare moa ) and on the bodies of Moai, but only as a secondary application in the late period of Easter Island culture. This and the association with the feminine suggest that the symbols were used as symbols of fertility.
Parallels
The Rei Miro of Easter Island are unique in their decor and artistic perfection, but have parallels in other cultures of the South Pacific . A crescent-shaped, less elaborately decorated wooden breast ornament was worn by the tribal chiefs on the Marquesas Islands. There were similar objects in New Guinea , the Solomon Islands , Samoa and Hawaii , the Society Islands and the Maori . Thor Heyerdahl also points out parallels in South America ( Tiahuanaco ).
Collections
In Germany, Rei Miro can be seen in the following collections:
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Captain Geiseler: The Easter Island - A place of prehistoric culture in the South Seas , Berlin 1883, p. 35
- ↑ Thor Heyerdahl: The Art of Easter Island , Munich-Gütersloh-Vienna 1975, p. 92, fig. 21–23 and panels XII and XV
- ^ Anthony JP Meyer: Oceanic Art , Cologne 1995, pp. 448–449
- ^ Alfred Métraux: Ethnology of Easter Island in BP Bishop Museum Bulletin, Honolulu 1940, p. 232.
- ↑ Thomas Barthel: The main goddess of the Easter Islanders, yearbook of the Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig, Leipzig 1956, p. 61.
- ↑ JL Young: Remarks on phallic stones from Rapanui , BP Bishop Museum Papers, Honolulu 1904
- ^ Alfred Métraux: Ethnology of Easter Island in BP Bishop Museum Bulletin, Honolulu 1940, p. 312.
- ↑ Horst Cain: Religious Terminology of Easter Island and Polynesia in Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, No. 125, Frankfurt 1990, p. 12.
- ^ Splendid isolation - Art of Easter Island , catalog for the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum from December 11, 2001 to August 4, 2002, New York 2001, p. 66
- ^ Alfred Métraux: Ethnology of Easter Island in BP Bishop Museum Bulletin, Honolulu 1940, p. 231.
- ^ K. Routledge: The Mystery of Easter Island , London 1919, p. 242.
- ↑ Anthony JP Meyer: Oceanic Art , Cologne 1995, objects on pages 66, 244, 398, 505, 517.
- ↑ Thor Heyerdahl: The Art of Easter Island , Munich-Gütersloh-Vienna 1975, pp. 218-219.