Dance Paddle (Rapa)
Not on view
Essential to many dances and ceremonies, dance paddles (rapa) were usually carried in pairs to accent the movements of performers who spun them on their axes to the rhythm of a chanted accompaniment. Rapa were used by both men and women, although the sexes seldom performed together. Men also reportedly used rapa in funerary rituals, during which they kept a vigil over the body of a slain comrade. Their bodies covered in black ash, the mourners carried dance paddles as they intoned sacred chants intended to assist them in avenging the victim's death.
Rapa portray highly stylized human figures, reduced to two blade-like lobes representing the head and abdomen. The facial features are reduced to a single brow-line that incorporates the nose and extends down either side of the head to two small hemispherical knobs that represent ear ornaments.
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