Select your language

Panpipes and clubs: Early images of Tanna Islanders

Lindstrom Lamont. 2020. The Journal of the Polynesian Society.
Panpipes and clubs: Early images of Tanna Islanders
ARTICLE, (2020 ) - PUBLISHEDVERSION - English (en-GB)
The Journal of the Polynesian Society
OPENACCESS - .
Audience : RESEARCHERS, STUDENTS
The Polynesian Society (Inc.)
Subject
Music--Classical influences, Tanna (Ni-Vanuatu people), Social evolution, Musical settings
Domains
Anthropologie
Description

William Hodges, James Cook’s artist on his second voyage, produced notably popular and influential drawings and paintings. These included several illustrations of Tanna Islanders (Vanuatu) that shaped European visions of the island from the 1770s through the 1830s, after which they were supplanted by Christian missionary depictions. Influenced by neoclassicist artistic convention, Hodges’s engravings, which subsequently were much copied, commonly paired panpipes with clubs in islander hands. A chain of early engravings that feature panpipes and clubs reveals an initial heroic vision of natural island dignity, as both these accessories evoked European classical ideals. Although subsequent Christian and social evolutionary views later disavowed noble savage tropes, these persist in contemporary touristic appreciation of island musical talent and tradition.

Keywords
Island imagery, William Hodges, music, panpipes, clubs, Tanna, Vanuatu
Language
English (en-GB)
Creators
Lindstrom, Lamont
Contributors
Sources
Journal of the Polynesian Society, The, Vol. 129, No. 1, Apr 2020: 7-28
Coverage
Vanuatu, Tanna
Name of newspaper
The Journal of the Polynesian Society