Carved wooden hand
From Easter Island (Rapa Nui),
Polynesia
Before AD 1775
Captain Cook visited Easter Island on his
second voyage in 1774. His ship,
Resolution, was in the
area for only five days. His crew included the father and son
naturalists Johann Reinhold and Johann Georg Forster. This carving
was collected by a Tahitian called Mahine, who was acting as
interpreter for the crew. He gave it to Johann Reinhold Forster,
who subsequently presented it to the British
Museum.
The carving
represents a woman's left hand, and George Forster comments
in his account of the voyage of
Resolution that
'... its fingers were all bent upwards, as they are in the
action of dancing ... and its nails were represented very long,
extending at least three fourths of an inch beyond the
finger's
end'.
More recently
it had been suggested that the hand may have been used by a priest
or priestess in healing or sorcery.
J.A. Van Tilburg, Easter Island: archaeology, ec (London, The British Museum Press, 1994)
A.L. Kaeppler, Artificial Curiosities: being (Honolulu, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 1978)
J.G.H. Forster, A voyage round the world in Hi (London, White, Robson, Elmsly and Robinson, 1777)