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Tatau
A History of Samoan Tattooing
Brief Description
The Samoan Islands are virtually unique in that tattooing has been continuously practised with indigenous techniques: the full male tattoo, the pe'a, has evolved in subtle ways in its design since the nineteenth century, but remains as elaborate, meaningful, and powerful as it ever was. This...
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Format: Hardback
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Tatau: A History of Samoan Tattooing is the first publication to examine 3000 years of Samoan tatau. Through a chronology rich with people, encounters and events it describes how Samoan tattooing has been shaped by local and external forces of change over many centuries.
* Traces the origins of tattooing back 3000 years and connects the prehistory of the practice to around 1500 B.C., and the early seafaring ancestors of the Polynesian people. * Examines Samoan tattooing from the 1700s to the 1900, drawing on indigenous accounts and the writings and observations of European explorers, missionaries and colonial officials. It includes stories of the impact of the missionaries on tattooing, Samoan resistance to restricting the practice, the tattooing of Europeans, Tongans and other foreigners. It also examines westerners' fascination with tatau and their efforts to document and display it in institutions in Europe. * Examines the history of Samoan tatau in the 20th century, including the impact of World War One and Two on tattooing, and the expansion of Samoan tattooing in the post war years, the migration and development of Samoan communities overseas and how tatau has changed as a result. * Highlights the interests and engagement of European and American tattooing communities with Samoan tattooists in the 1980s and 1990s. * Features two important ethnographic snapshots or case studies. These are new and detailed contributions to the existing literature that capture the dynamics of contemporary Samoan tattooing as a living art form. * There has been no single publication on Samoan tattooing since Carl Marquand's Die tatowirung beider Geschlechter in Samoa/The tatttooing of both sexes in Samoa. English Translation by Sibyl Ferner. Although reprinted, this book was first published in 1899. The Te Papa Press publication Tatau: Samoan tattooing, New Zealand Art: global culture (2010) was focused primarily on the work a small group of tattooists and the photographic work of Mark Adams and is now out print. * Handsomely designed and packaged. * Highly regarded authors.
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Description
The Samoan Islands are virtually unique in that tattooing has been continuously practised with indigenous techniques: the full male tattoo, the pe'a, has evolved in subtle ways in its design since the nineteenth century, but remains as elaborate, meaningful, and powerful as it ever was.
This cultural history is the first publication to examine 3000 years of Samoan tatau. Through a chronology rich with people, encounters and events, it describes how Samoan tattooing has been shaped by local and external forces of change over many centuries.
It argues that Samoan tatau has a long history of relevance both within and beyond Samoa, and a more complicated history than is currently presented in the literature.
Tatau is richly illustrated with historical images of nineteenth and twentieth-century Samoan tattooing, contemporary tattooing, diagrams of tattoo designs and motifs, and with supplementary photographs such as posters, ephemera, film stills, and artefacts.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780994136244
Publisher: Te Papa Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 16 August 2018
Country: New Zealand
Imprint: Te Papa Press
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 200.0mm
Height: 255.0mm
Weight: 1340g
Pages: 320
About the Author
SEAN MALLON is of Samoan and Irish descent and is Senior Curator Pacific Cultures at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. He is the author of Samoan Art and Artists (2002) and co-edited Pacific Art Niu Sila: The Pacific dimension of contemporary New Zealand arts (2002) Tatau: Samoan tattoo, New Zealand art, global culture (2010) and Tangata o le Moana: the story of New Zealand and the people of the Pacific (2012). His exhibitions include Paperskin: the art of tapa cloth (with Maud Page) (2009); Tangata o le Moana (2007), Voyagers: discovering the Pacific and Tatau/Tattoo (2002). He has been a council member of The Polynesian Society since 2008. SEBASTIEN GALLIOTT studied ethnology at the University of Provence and EHESS (Paris), France's foremost research school in social sciences. His research focuses on Samoan traditional tattooing and the contemporary practice of this ritual. Since 2001, he has made several visits to Samoa, Tonga and Fiji in order to do field research. His articles include "Samoan tattoos leave indelible global imprint", Voices: Unesco in Asia and the Pacific, 27 July- September 2011, pp. 10-11. Sebastien is also a self-taught photographer and filmmaker. During a one-year residence in Samoa in 2005, he took hundreds of pictures and hours of film and exhibited a selection of those photographs in France (Marseille, Correns). He has given guest lectures on tattooing at Te Papa and at conferences in Samoa and Europe.
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