Specimen Of Tapa
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1875
label: Collection Date
content: 1874
name: label: Collector
content: Col. Albert B. Steinberger
label: Donor Name
content: Col. Albert B. Steinberger
notes: label: Notes
content: Tapa (siapo in Samoa). The material of the siapo comes from the inner bark of the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera). After the inner bark was removed from the plant, and left to soak in water, it would have been beaten by a wooden mallet on an anvil, to become a sheet of u'a. Sheets of u'a were then pasted together with a natural adhesive, such as arrowwood. Regina Meredith (4th generation Siapo Artist and Art Professor, American Samoa), identified the siapo as a siapo tasiga, which means a siapo decorated in the rubbing style. She also identified that darker lines and circles as being painted on with o'a and the rubbing, as mixture of o'a and ele. Meredith also noted that there is no further significance behind the motifs and that the designs were chosen randomly. Per Regina Meredith: o'a = dark brown liquid ele = brownish red ochre u'a = one sheet of plain tapa siapo tasiga = tapa with rubbed pattern; older style; original method
label: Notes
content: This object is stored rolled.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 15 Sep 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: American Samoa (not certain), Samoa (not certain) / United States (not certain), Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Samoan
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 003313
label: USNM Number
content: E13732-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth