tour 4 of 26
Power and Taboo: sacred objects from the Pacific
Kou wood bowl
This bowl would have been used for preparing
and serving the infusion, kava, known by the Hawaiians as
'awa, an
important beverage for high-ranking people. It is made from the
root of a shrub, the pepper plant Piper
methysticum and acts as a mild sedative,
relaxing both the body and
mind.
The bowl would have
been hollowed out using a chisel or an adze and soaked in the sea
for a week to remove the bitter taste of the wood. It would then
have been filled with food at intervals until it was thought that
the bitterness had completely gone. Finally it was smoothed with
pumice and polished with green bamboo leaves and candlenut oil. The
eyes are pearl shell and the teeth are cut boar's tusks or
bone.
This is probably the
bowl presented to Captain Charles Clerke, who commanded HMS
Discovery on
Cook's third voyage (1776-80). A chief of Kauai visited his
ship on 23 January 1778 and Cook described in his journal the gift
to Clerke '... of a large kava bowl, that was supported by
two car[v]ed
men...'.
Kava
continues to be used in many countries in the South
Pacific.