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- Title
UNEXPECTED TRAJECTORIES: A HISTORY OF NIUEAN THROWING STONES.
- Authors
Isaac, Barbara; Isaac, Gwyneira
- Abstract
Before the arrival of the first missionaries, Niuean warriors fought with stones carefully modified for throwing. This practice, much feared by sailors and missionaries, became a symbol of the primitiveness of the "Savage Island" (Cook 1774). By 1853, following Christian conversion, the practice of throwing stones had come to an end. In so far as it is possible with the limited records available, we reconstruct the original behaviour, as well as the intriguing trajectories the stones took as they left the island and were later collected by and housed in museums. We track this dispersal process, as well as the incorporation of the stones into 19th century anthropological thinking. Today, there is only one stone known on the island, and none are known to have been found in archaeological surveys. This impels us to address the scale of loss represented by these now geographically remote objects of the past.
- Subjects
NIUE; NIUEANS; ROCKS in folklore; WEAPONS; SLINGSTONES; PRIMITIVE warfare; HISTORY of Christian missions; ANTIQUITIES; 19TH century collectors &; collecting
- Publication
Journal of the Polynesian Society, 2011, Vol 120, Issue 4, p369
- ISSN
0032-4000
- Publication type
Article