Tongan tapa piece (tongan is ngatu)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 17 Feb 2017
label: Collection Date
content: 2006
name: label: Collector
content: Jean T. Chapman-Mason
label: Donor Name
content: Jean T. Chapman-Mason
notes: label: Notes
content: "Dolphins drawn freehand on piece of tapa; typical "vane swastika" motifs (an ancient widespread design) appears on the border." "Acquired by [donor] from visiting Fijian-Indian vendor who lives in South Auckland, New Zealand."
label: Notes
content: Border design consists of a band of alternating light and dark triangles often described as resembling windmill-like vanes, in a swastika arrangement. Design motif is therefore often know as the "vane swastika". This is an ancient motif, and is sometimes described as an abstracted depiction of two birds flying past each other so that their wings appear like interlocked triangles. See p. 356 in Addo, Ping-Ann, "We Pieced Together Cloth, We Pieced Together Culture: Reflctions on Tongan Women's Textile-making in Oakland" (2004). Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings. Paper 469. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/469.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Aug 2016
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Rarotonga, Cook Islands, Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tongan
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2069807
label: USNM Number
content: E433819-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Barkcloth
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 44 cm
label: Width
content: 35 cm