Feather headdress

Early 19th century

Not on view

Returned to lender

This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.

The arch of this spectacular headdress evokes the vaulted dome of the sky. Its dazzling, cosmologically charged feathers and sec- tions of shell, which Polynesians valued for their rarity and shimmer, held the power to act as divine conduits. Thought to be directly descended from the first line of creator gods—described in origin chants as feathered beings—the warrior-chiefs who wore such headdresses did so to reinforce their sanctity and legitimize their right to rule.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

References

Title: Feather headdress
Date: Early 19th century
Geography: Austral Islands, Ra’ivavae
Medium: Feathers (various, including jungle fowl, Pacific black duck, and lorikeet [vini kura]), shell, barkcloth, human hair, cane, fiber (various)
Dimensions: H. 43 5/16 × W. 43 5/16 × D. 8 1/4 in. (110 × 110 × 21 cm)
Classification: Feathers-Costumes
Credit Line: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gift of the Heirs of David Kimball, 1899
Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing