File:Handbook to the ethnographical collections (1910) (14803144273).jpg

Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
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Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ional spear-head, Upper Congo.I; c. Conventional lioe-blade.s, Upper Nile. d. Conventional axe-blade, StanleyFalLs. e. Copper saltiro, Urua. /. Conventional knifc-hlade, Sierra Leone.g. Conventional spear, Lomanii River. 30 INTRODUCTION heading- into which the subject is divided. A j^roininent partis pkiyed by the tahu^ a prohibition forltidding contact witlicertain persons or things considered sacred or dangerous, andtherefore inviolate. Such an institution might be made mostirksome not oidy to the unprivileged lower class but even tosacred and inviolate persons themselves, or to privilegedpersons subjected to restrictions for temporary and particularreasons. For example, a sacred chief or king in Polynesiamight not even touch the ground for fear of dangerous con-seqiiences to his people, and had always to be carried fromplace to place upon mens shoulders; after the operationof tatuing, Maori chiefs were not allowed to put food intotheir own mouths, Ijut were fed like infants through
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Fig. 27.—Wampum (shell-beads often used as money) from the PlainsIndians of North America, (The belt is Iroquois.) curious wooden funnels (fig. 28). The effect of tabu uponthe common people is illustrated by the fate of the NewZealander who is recorded to have died of fright afterinadvertently touching the personal property of an in-violate chief. The classes who either themselves possessedthis mysterious power or were held immune from most of itseffects soon learned to exploit the useful possession in theirown interests. Thus they placed signs at the entrances oftheir plantations signifying that these too were tabu andthat trespass upon them would be perilous. The tahu wasalso a powerful instrument in the hands of the priests, whoon certain occasions might lay whole regions under interdictof fasting and silence. In Hawaii during such a time eventhe cocks were covered over with gourds, lest by their crowing The word tabu is of Polynesian origin. INTRODUCTION 31 they might break the

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