CIHA 2016 in Beijing
34th World Congress of Art History
About History Press Release Sessions Schedule Activities Participants Venue Discussion Registration ClosedParticipants
Tabu and Mana and Their Interpretation from Cook and Hodges to Adams and Lafarge
Session 8 Art and Taboo
ABSTRACT
Polynesians interpreted their world and organized their social lives through the underlying principles and concepts of mana and tapu, intertwined with ideas of rank based on descent from gods. Mana is a supernatural power linked with genealogical rank, fertility, and protocol; it was protected by restrictions known as tapu. According to these principles, each Polynesian society developed distinctive hierarchical traditions tied to sacred rituals in which special objects or works of art were used. Hereditary chiefs (ariki, ali`i), sea experts (tautai), craftsmen (tufunga), and warriors (toa), became important societal statuses. Sacred places (malae, marae, and heiau) with rituals based on the drinking of kava (an infusion of the root of Piper methysticum, a tropical pepper) were characteristic, but developed differently in each area as the ancestral culture diversified. My paper will explore the concepts of mana and tabu as Polynesian cultural ideas and how the adopted concept of tapu was interpreted and reinterpreted by the West. Along the way I will look at Polynesian objects associated with tapu and divinity and how they were depicted during Cook’s voyages and a century later by John LaFarge.
KAEPPLER, Adrinne
Education
University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee l956-l958 (Major, English Literature)
Wisconsin Conservatory of Music l954-l958 (Major, Voice)
University of Hawai`i l958-l959, B.A. Anthropology
University of Hawai`i l959-l961, M.A. Anthropology
University of Hawai`i l962-l967, Ph.D. Anthropology
Sigma Xi - (Honorary Society - Science)
Phi Beta Kappa (Honorary Society - Liberal Arts)
Alpha Delta Kappa (Honorary Society - Education)
Employment
Curator of Oceanic Ethnology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, January 1984 - present
Associate Curator, July 1980 - December 1983.
Chair, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, March l985 - May 1988
Visiting Professor, School of Art and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India, February 2009.
Visiting Professor, Graduate Seminar, Department of Music/Ethnomusicology, University of Maryland, College Park, Spring Semester 1988; Spring Semester 1997, Spring Semester 2002.
Visiting Professor, Department of Art History, UCLA - Winter Term 1990
Visiting Professor for Team-taught Seminar, Departments of Anthropology and Art History, Johns Hopkins University, Fall Semester 1989
Part-time Lecturer, Department of Social Anthropology, The Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 1982 - 1987
Part time Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai`i, l967-l969
Affiliate Graduate Faculty, University of Hawai`i, l967 - 1980.
Instructor in Anthropology, University of Hawai`i, Spring Semester l965
Instructor in Anthropology, College of General Studies, University of Hawai`i, l964-l965
Graduate assistant, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawai`i, Summer Session l96l
Lecturer, Departments of Music and Theatre/Dance, University of Hawai`i, l968-1980
Honorary Associate, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu, July l980 - present
Anthropologist, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, June l967 - July l980
Fellow in Anthropology, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, l965 - l967
Research Analyst, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, l962 - l965
Assistant in Anthropology, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, l96l-l962
Area Studies Coordinator - Peace Corps, Tonga II, October - December l967, Moloka`i, Hawai`i