Ear Ornaments

Craftsmanship Throughout History

The craftsmanship of Marquesan artisans is often first encountered by tourists in a Polynesian museum exhibit or through the purchase of art. However, this encounter represents only a small piece of a rich history of jewelrymaking, carving, and decoration that continues to thrive on the islands. The art showcases local connection to the land and sea through both the materials and methods used. Artisans' work highlights the importance of marking and commemorating Marquesan beliefs and customs through imagery and traditional motifs.

Te Ana Peua is a key starting point to learn about the history of the craftsmanship and the work of Tahuata's residents. With its help, both Marquesans and visitors alike can continue to engage with the photos, artifacts, and crafts inside the museum, as well as the community surrounding it.

Ear Ornaments at Te Ana Peua

One important facet of Marquesan material culture is ornamentation. Ornamentation refers to adding detail to everyday objects to emphasize certain aesthetic or symbolic factors. Some ornamental objects are more sophisticated versions of objects meant for everyday use, such as a paddle with detail on the handle, while other objects are created solely for decoration, such as jewelry. Ornamental objects were crafted and worn to display social and spiritual power, becoming an outward representation and physical manifestation of one’s mana. Artisans still create many similar ornaments, such as jewelry, that combine traditional natural materials (seeds, bone, shells) with modern additions such as clasps and plastic cordage. Although the Marquesas are home to a rich diversity of ornamental objects, Te Ana Peua’s collections highlight the diverse culture of ear ornamentation. Ear ornamentation in the Marquesas ranges from the simplicity of picking and wearing a fresh flower to the elaborate process of handcrafting earrings.

Pu taiana, as seen in Te Ana Peua, are ear ornaments usually consisting of a shell cap and a carved spur. The cap sits at the front of the ear, and is connected to the spur by a piece of wood or bone (Figure 3). These ornaments are usually worn by women, though inconsistent historical accounts may suggest otherwise. The pu taiana at Te Ana Peua, discovered at the archaeological site of Hanamiai, Tahuata, are carved from whale ivory and coral (Figures 4-5). Each of these ornaments is one continuously carved piece, as opposed to a separate cap and spur. During its time of use, the whale ivory ornament would be more valuable than the coral ornament because of this material's rarity; the person who wore this ornament would have a higher social status than the person wearing the coral ornament. Similar pu’u taiana in collections around the world utilize carved bone to create the spur, such as in the Quai Branly and Wereld-Museum Leiden (Figures 6-7).

Many Marquesan ear ornaments, such as pu taiana, require pierced ears. The replica turtleshell ta’a puaina piercer on display at Te Ana Peua was created by Vaitahu's Teiki Barsinas (Figure 1). Most piercers feature an upper portion with tiki imagery. The tiki is either a single figure, like Barsinas’, or a double tiki image (Figure 2). Other ta’a puaina were fashioned from ancestor bones or bird bones. Once their ears were pierced, Marquesans could wear several different ear ornaments, such as the pu taiana on display.

Marquesan ear ornaments at Te Ana Peua and around the world are important reminders of the expert craftsmanship and use of natural resources on the islands, bridging the aesthetics of the past to the makers of today.

Figure 1: Replica ear piercer carved from turtle shell by Teiki Barsinas at Te Ana Peua.

Figure 2: Ta’a puaina at Penn Museum depicting two tiki joined at head and lower body. Photograph from Adorning the World (Kjellgren and Ivory).

Figure 3: Engraving depicting Marquesans wearing various ear ornaments. From Voyage au pôle sud et dans l’Océanie sur les corvettes l’Astrolabe et la Zélée (Dumont d'Urville).

Figure 3 (continued): Close up of engraving, showing a Marquesan wearing ear ornament.

Figure 4: Pu taiana from Hanamiai at Te Ana Peua.

Figure 5: Pu taiana from Hanamiai at Te Ana Peua.

Figure 6: Pu taiana at Quai Branly Museum (71.1887.31.38.1).

Figure 7: Pu taiana at Wereld-Museum Leiden.

Marquesan Art Around the World

In addition to pu taiana and ta’a puaina, many other Marquesan ear ornaments can be found in museum collections around the world. This section highlights some of the other types of ornaments, what they are made of, and how they were worn.

Kouhau and hakakai

Historical depictions of Marquesans and decorative objects in museum collections around the world feature other types of Marquesan ear ornaments, such as kouhau and hakakai. Kouhau are large crescentic ear ornaments worn by men of rank. Unlike pu taiana, which are most commonly made of bone, kouhau are made of a single piece of wood with two spurs at the back. In William Hodges' sketch and J. Hall's engraving of the hakaiki (chief) Honu of Tahuata, Honu is depicted wearing these ornaments (Figure 1). Another type of Marquesan ear ornaments is hakakai. Hakakai are ivory ear ornaments carved from whale teeth or pig tusks. Some were adorned with tiki on the spur (Figure 2-3). These were worn similar to pu’u taiana, but were often larger and worn primarily by men (Figure 4). Some hakakai were so heavy that they were supported by cordage attached to either ear ornament and placed over the head (Figure 5).

Figure 1: The Chief at Santa Christina. Engraving by J. Hall after a sketch made by William Hodges in 1774 on Captain James Cook’s second voyage to the Pacific. This illustration shows Honu, the hakaiki (chief) of Vaitahu, Tahuata wearing kouhau.

Figure 2: Hakakai at the British Museum.

Figure 3: Hakakai at the Met Museum.

Figure 4: Hakakai and other Marquesan objects on display at the Quai Branly Museum. In the center of the photo, the bottom two rows of pu taiana are visibly smaller than the hakakai in the row above them.

Figure 5: An 1813 engraving entitled "An Inhabitant of the Island of Nukahiwa," featuring a Marquesan wearing ear ornaments similar to hakakai. From Adorning the World (Kjellgren and Ivory).

A burst of color and texture: Uuhe

Primarily worn by women, uuhe are known for their unique shape and variety of colors. To form the main part of the ornament, a piece of turtleshell is heated over fire and bent into an S-shape. The turtleshell is adorned with glass trade beads and dolphin teeth (Figures 1-3). Some of the earliest accounts of uuhe were made during Captain David Porter's 1813 voyage to Nuku Hiva (Figure 4). Uuhe was collected around this time by Captain Nathaniel Page and given to the Peabody Essex Museum, becoming one of the first of these ornaments donated to a global museum collection (Figure 5).

Figure 1: Uuhe at Te Papa Museum.

Figure 2: Uuhe at the British Museum.

Figure 3: A close-up of uuhe at the British Museum.

Figure 4: Drawing of uuhe from the 1815 book Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean (Porter).

Figure 5: Photograph of ear ornaments, including uuhe (bottom center), from the 1939 catalog, The Marquesas Islands Collection in the Peabody Museum of Salem (Dodge).

Pu taiana: Decorative motifs

Though the pu taiana at Te Ana Peua are less ornate, other examples in global collections reflect four main decoration categories as outlined by Karl von den Steinen, a German explorer and ethnologist (Die Marquesaner und Ihre Kunst). The first motif, “indifferent comrades,” depicts human figures side by side along the side of the spur, such as in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History (Figure 1). The next two motifs are associated with Marquesan oral traditions. The vehine fanaua motif features two pairs of overlapping, abstracted figures and refers to an oral tradition about childbirth, as seen in the collections of the Penn Museum (Figure 2). In this tradition, women only know how to give birth by cutting out the child, and eventually learn how to give birth through the body. The figures in this motif are understood to represent the mother and those assisting her during childbirth. The next motif, “young girls in a swing,” depicts a figure at either end of the spur facing each other with a crossbar and two different figures in the middle, such as in the collections of the Humboldt Forum (Figure 3). This motif depicts the story of two young girls on a swing pranking a visitor, Akaui, who seeks revenge by having warriors knock the swing down. The figures on the sides are interpreted as servants or slaves, and the figures on the middle crossbar sit on a swing. In some instances, both girls are upright (Figure 4), and in others, one or both of the girls is shown to be knocked over (Figure 5). The final motif, “loving couple,” includes three figures: a couple facing each other, and a figure looking outwards at the end. The reason for including three figures in a “couple” motif remains unclear. An exemplary example of this style can be found in the collection of Mark and Carolyn Blackburn in Hawaii (Figure 6).

Figure 1: Pu taiana at the American Museum of Natural History depicting the “indifferent comrades” motif. Made of bone and shell, and each measuring 4.5cm. Photograph from Adorning the World (Kjellgren and Ivory).

Figure 2: Pu taiana at the Penn Museum depicting the “vehine fanaua” motif. Made from bone and each measuring 4.5-5 cm. Photograph from Adorning the World (Kjellgren and Ivory). Similar ear ornaments 18023L and 18023K available to view in the Penn Museum’s digital collections.

Figure 3 - Pu taiana at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin depicting the “girls in swing” motif. Made from shell and bone, and measuring 5.4 cm. View online in the Humboldt Forum’s collections.

Figure 4: Pu taiana in the Collection of Mark and Carolyn Blackburn depicting the “girls in swing” motif with both girls upright. Made from bone and shell, and each measuring 4.4 cm. Photograph from Adorning the World (Kjellgren and Ivory).

Figure 5: Pu taiana in the Collection of Mark and Carolyn Blackburn depicting the “girls in swing” motif, where both girls are not upright. Made from bone and shell, and each measuring 5.1 cm. Photograph from Adorning the World (Kjellgren and Ivory).

Figure 6: Pu taiana in the Collection of Mark and Carolyn Blackburn depicting the “loving couple” motif. Made from bone and shell, and measuring 6 cm. Photograph from Adorning the World (Kjellgren and Ivory).

Sources

Dodge, Ernest Stanley. The Marquesas Islands Collection in the Peabody Museum of Salem (Salem: Peabody Museum, 1939).

Dumont d’Urville, Jules. Voyage au pôle sud et dans l’Océanie sur les corvettes l’Astrolabe et la Zélée, Atlas Pittoresque, Tome Premier (Paris: Gidé, 1846), plate 60. Courtesy of Universitäts-bibliothek Heidelberg.

Hiura, Jaclyn K. Pu Taiana: Signifiers of the Female Role in Marquesan Society. University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/20406

Kjellgren, Eric, and Carol S. Ivory. Adorning the World: Art of the Marquesas Islands. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.

Porter, David. Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean, by Captain David Porter, in the United States Frigate Essex, In the Years 1812, 1813, and 1814, Vol. II (Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, 1815).

Steinen, Karl von den. Die Marquesaner und Ihre Kunst. 1925-1928. 3 vols. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

Van Santen, C. (2023). Adorning the Ears: On Marquesan Ear Ornamentation. Pacific Arts: The Journal of the Pacific Arts Association, 23(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.5070/PC223263050

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