Late War Club ('u'u)

As travelers began to visit the Marquesas Islands in the early 1800s, the ’u’u club became a popular souvenir. Gradually the supply of traditional clubs dwindled: Karl von den Steinen reported that “not a single old example [of a club] was anymore in the islands” when he visited in 1897. The increased demand for traditional-looking pieces led the local craftsmen (tuhuna) to carve smaller forms to sell to tourists. The later clubs are shorter, lighter weight, and generally carved more extensively but less skillfully than the older ones. They were not darkened by curing in the mud of a taro field, as the older clubs were.

Some art historians have called these late ’u’u “decadent,” implying a degeneration of skill among late 19th century tuhuna, but it is more likely that the shift in style just reflects the economic pressures on the craftsmen to create more clubs for tourists. The late clubs are extensively decorated with traditional Marquesan motifs, such as the human faces in relief and the typical scroll design on this example. There are four styles of late ’u’u, each decorated in a somewhat different way. The style to which this example belongs is characterized by the presence, on one side of the head, of a six-armed motif drawn from the uhikana, a pearl- and turtle-shell forehead ornament worn by Marquesan men.

-Abby Seldin, Class of '09