Featherwork and Divine Chieftainship in Tonga

Authors

  • Phyllis Herda University of Auckland
  • Billie Lythberg University of Auckland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15286/jps.123.3.277-300

Keywords:

pala tavake, feather headdress, sacred regalia, Tongan political history, Tu'i Tonga, Western contact

Abstract

Pala tavake were sacred regalia, feather headdresses, reserved for the traditional sacred ruler of Tonga, the Tu‘i Tonga. Recently a fanned feathered  headdress whose materials and construction are commensurate with 18th century Tongan objects was uncovered at Madrid’s Museo de América. This paper considers the feather headdress located in Madrid, its probable historical context and connections – both Tongan and Spanish. In addition we discuss the association of pala tavake with the Tu‘i Tonga, the sacred ruler of Tonga, and the changing nature of the title in the late 18th century.

Author Biographies

Phyllis Herda, University of Auckland

Phyllis Herda is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Women’s Studies at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She gained an MA degree in Anthropology at the University of Auckland and completed a PhD in Pacific History at the Australian National University. She has always worked across traditional disciplines. She continues to research and write on Tongan ethnography and history; gender, disease and colonialism in Polynesia; and Polynesian textiles, ancient and modern.

Billie Lythberg, University of Auckland

Billie Lythberg is a Research Fellow at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and former Research Associate for ‘Artefacts of Encounter’ at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Her research interests include indigenous economies and aesthetics, with particular foci on Māori and Tongan arts and literatures, the contexts in which these emerge and in which they are valued and exchanged, and 18th century artefacts (both tangible and intangible) of encounters with Europeans where object exchanges were harnessed to political and economic objectives.
Cover for September 2014 issue

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Published

2014-12-12

Issue

Vol. 123 No. 3 (2014)

Section

Articles

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