Shields of Melanesia
Melanesia ShieldsUnnamed Destination
Interpretation of the Melanesian Shields, Tavarelli 1995. N ]ot all groups in Melanesia had shields, and where shields were found, they differed in form, height, weight, and in the raw stock they were made of (although in most cases they were made of wood). This variation reflects both the difference in the weaponry against which the shields were used (including darts, javelins, axes and legs) and the way the shields were used.
Not all shields are used for pure defence missions. The Trobriand'dance shields' were exactly that: decorative objects that were woven and swirled in dancing. Several shields have several uses..... as carriers to take injured soldiers off the field of battle, while shields of the same size from the highlands of New Guinea have often been reused as bedding or frontals.
Also among the Melanesia groups that had shields, there are no simple associations of the species "one strain, one kind of shield". Several groups manufactured two or more sign styles (Sillitoe 1980); in fact, variations between the sign styles used by a particular group can actually gauge variations in the severities of combat.
The Wahgi in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, for example, had not only their solid, elongated combat shields but also slender, rod-shaped parry shields. Tortoise design also resists drawer placement. In some cases they mirror the kosmological dimension of military action, in others it is far less simple to recognize a semantic connection between sign motives and interrelations.
Similarly, the regulations that often divide the genders in war may apply to shields, although they do not necessarily do so. The Hagen men should separate from the wives and should prevent sex if the arms are not softened ( (Strathern and Strathern 1971:104).
However, their Wahgi neighbours, who have very similar shields, negate that they imposed such limitations by saying that their own tatters are more related to the ritualized wood coal, in which Wahgi soldiers, like many in Melanesia, adorn themselves as tradition. One of the early works of systemic Melanesic artwork comes from Alfred Haddon, who stayed in Torres Street at the end of the 19th centr. and also attended the Papua Gulf.
A man of his day, Haddon (1895:2ff) was inspired by concepts of societal development and saw the studies of the arts by "latecomers" such as the Melanesians as a necessary precursor to the comprehension of "civilized art". He became an anthropologist as a botanist and suggested that drafts had "life stories" that developed from "birth" through "growth" to "death".....
An early indication that this changed was the discussion about another Melanesic plate style, the Trobrian Islanders' singular, decorated, egg-shaped shields. Though the war in Trobriand was over before he even got there. But also because he wrote at a period when the study of the arts was unmodern (his own work contributed to discrediting economic histories, in the context of which arts were enlisted as evidence), Malinowski did not publish anything about the significance of the shields' outlines.
Berndt instead reminded us that Trobriand's men should refrain from sexual relations in wartime. He proposed that the thyroid theme should represent a man and a woman about to have sex..... While Haddon was involved in the development of designs and the delimitation of stylized areas. However, this supplementary information did not prove conclusive, for the Trobriand shine turned out to be merely a term index for the single motives that make up the overall desig.
There is no deep magical-religious significance, none at all - and this is true for her entire "art". Therefore, the issue of the "meaning" of shields (and other) layouts can be very complicated. Trobriand's case still does not provide a coherent response, although the general look of the draft suggests that it was once something quite complicated, even though its own personality has now been forfeited.
The situation is somewhat more clear in the case of the Asmat, who are living on the other side of New Guinea in Irian Jaya. The Asmat shields, of which there are a number of local sub-types, are manufactured by experts who create reliefs that are upgraded with different colours.
Asmat' s thinking considers the two sides of the same coin, so that the continuity of one' s own lives and fruitfulness is considered to depend on the other. So it makes perfect sense that these are among the dominating motives of Asmat arts, whereby above all floating-fix motives (often in a very schematized form) appear on shields.
This small statue on[an Asmat shield] shows a slightly different way in which the sign can be significant: not only by depicting an outer being ('witch','flying fox', etc.), but by creating a connection between a sign and its holder. Asmat Smidt (1993:22ff; 71) reported that many Asmat woodcarvings, complete with signs, were named after deceased ancestors.
The shields from Asmat in the centre often had a picture of the deceased on top of them, and other deceased relations (interestingly also women) were remembered in the design engraved on the front. Those ancestors were to assist their live ancestors in the battles in which the shields were used and could be revenged by them.
The small figurine on the sign was sometimes cropped off when the sign holder died. Another way in which the sign can relate to the identification of its holder is the Solomon Islands' scarce shell shields. The Trobriand shields also pointed to the state of their possessors (with only the most brave soldiers painting their shields), as well as various depictions of sorceresses, sex congresses, etc., according to whose argument proves to be so.
However, here too we should be conscious of our own specific occidental sense of searching for significance, iconographically or otherwise. As a result, we may ask Melanese shapes for their "meaning" and ignore other modi in which signalling can be important. Cherry Lowman in her 1973 survey of Papua New Guinea highlands marin shields implied this.
Most of the shields themselves were designed in large, strong and open geometrical shapes in opposing colours. It seems that the iconical shapes in the drafts are not intentional, but rather projective or interpret. Instead, Lowman reasoned that the importance of the shields and their design lay in their contributions to the "multisensory" meetings in which shields were used.
Its large, light and airy design would have set itself apart from the wooded surroundings in which the Maring are located. They were designed to be intimidating, not by what they represent, but by their shimmering looks, just as the solid shields enlarged the seeming height of the warriors (..., especially since in use whipping sticks with casuar feathers are attached above the shield)....
We know in some cases that there were specialized shieldsmen. The Papuan golf shields, on the other side, were developed (as we have seen) for an archers. Obviously, some shields (like the Arawe....) are almost as lavishly ornamented on the back as on the front, which in turn means a slightly different roll for the turtle pattern, since in such cases it seems to be aligned with both the turtle arm and its antagonist.
However, more notable is the carelessness with which supporting devices are shielded: the grips, belts and slings with which they are worn and tampered with differently in use. It' s a strange omitment, not only because the way the sign holder is mounted must in turn affect how a sign is seen by enemies and viewers, but also because the way the holders are mounted at a rough angle gives an indication of the use of arms.
For example, we could probably suggest as a general guideline that heavy shields that cannot readily be carried in one grip have belts that allow them to be carried over the shoulders.....