tour 1 of 26
Power and Taboo: sacred objects from the Pacific
Power and Taboo: Sacred Objects from the Pacific
Gods inside, gods outside,
Gods above, gods below,
Gods oceanward, gods landward,
Gods incarnate, gods not incarnate,
Gods punishing sins, gods pardoning sins,
Gods devouring men, gods slaying warriors,
Gods saving men,
Gods of darkness and light, gods of the ten skies,
Can the gods all be counted?
The gods cannot all be counted!
(chant from the Society
Islands)
For the inhabitants of the Polynesian islands in the eastern
Pacific, the gods were always present in the world. But, while
their powers could be life-enhancing, they were also potentially
dangerous and had to be contained. Godly power was controlled by
means of the concept of tapu, from which the word taboo is
derived.
This tour contains a selection of objects from the British
Museum's unparalleled collection of art and artefacts from the
eastern Pacific. Most of them were collected between 1760 and 1860
by the earliest European missionaries and explorers and therefore
come from a time before the influence of European settlers had been
exerted upon the islands.