Pu toka, conque marine

Shell trumpet. Marquesas Islands. Late eighteenth/early nineteenth centuries. Triton shell, human hair, bone, coir, gum. L 37.5 cm. Cambridge, CUMAA: 1922.1166. Donated 1922 by Louis C.G. Clarke; possibly from the Widdicombe House collection (also acquired by Clarke in 1922), and of Cook second-voyage provenance. This side-blown triton-shell trumpet (pu toka) is in exceptional condition, missing only the wood mouthpiece which was formerly gummed to the circular aperture. A bone toggle (po’o ivi) secures a large bunch of human-hair tassels. The hair may have functioned as a muffle, as well as a sacrificial memorial to a deceased relative – hair being cut off as a sign of mourning. Trumpets were used to summon, to signal and to mark specific ritual time periods. Pacific Encounters Art & Divinity in Polynesia 1760 – 1860 Steven Hooper THE BRITISH MUSEUM PRESS 2006