Marquesan Tiki Images and Temple Ritual

Record summary

During the 1774 voyage, European visitors encountered Marquesan carved images, sacred precincts, and practices associated with chiefs and ritual specialists. The Marquesan tiki tradition is a useful comparison point for studying the relationship between ancestral representation, divine embodiment, monumental carving, and social rank in eastern Polynesia. Early descriptions are brief and often use the language of idols or superstition. Researchers should distinguish objects documented in situ from later museum interpretations, and should compare voyage journals with Marquesan oral and archaeological scholarship.