Maori and Polynesian: their origin, history and culture
Tattooing may have given the Cue
Tattooing may have given the Cue
(8) There are two alternative probable sources of the ornament. One is the tattooing on the faces of the warriors, Undoubtedly decoration of the person comes long before any other; for the desire of appeal to the feminine imagination appears earliest after the methods of satisfying hunger in the culture of primitive man. As amongst birds and most of the animals, it is the male amongst untutored mankind that has the self-decorative passion first. When civilisation is evolved, with its elaboration of masculine pursuits and its comparative seclusion of women in the household, the passion changes its sex. Amongst the Polynesians the woman was still the burden-bearer, and warlike and hunting man had to appeal to her imagination by personal adornment as well as by personal courage. Hence his eagerness that every inch of his body that was not covered should exhibit the most graceful ornamentation his race was capable of. And as his prowess and skill as a warrior rose, the imagination of the face-artists must have been stimulated to advance also, that he might conquer the hearts of the younger women. And the transition from temporary painting to the permanency of tattooing must have been greatly aided by the necessity of courage in the endurance of pain that is entailed, as well as that perennial desire of the human heart to be "beautiful for ever." The round outlines of the cheeks, the temples, the nostrils, the lips, and the upper thighs and arms may well have suggested circular and curving ornamentation; they certainly lent themselves easily to it once the artists invented it. But if it began with concentric circles on these parts, it was not likely to develop into the spiral; as Professor Haddon, in his "Evolution in Art," says, "There is a great tendency for spirals to degenerate into concentric circles." "In fact, one usually finds the two figures associated together, and the sequence is one of decadence, never the evolution of spirals from circles." And though the lips and nostrils suggest the spiral, the other rondures rather suggest the concentric circle.