Tapa Cloth
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Jan 1891
name: label: Donor Name
content: Edward Lovett
notes: label: Notes
content: Yellow tapa (or masi rerega) - made yellow from turmeric. Most likely to have been scraped tumeric and soaked in water for some time. Then the dye collected and tapa soaked in it to achieve the "yellow" color. This type of tapa was made especially for chiefs (those of chiefly rank), to make them feel special. It would have been plain yellow and given to chiefs out of respect. Nowadays they have the bottom stencilled (with patterns) for wedding garments. Now these special tapa are worn by all (not just by chiefs) for special occasions, e.g.: weddings, birthdays and births etc.. Note: Adrienne Kaeppler, Curator for Oceania Ethnology, does not think this tapa is from Fiji.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 31 Jul 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Fiji, Melanesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 023950
label: USNM Number
content: E151708-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 132.5 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 98 cm