Totokia
Type of club used in the Fiji islands
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The totokia (also pineapple club or beaked battle hammer) is a type of club or battlehammer from Fiji.[1][2]
The totokia was called the "pineapple club" because of the spiked ball behind the weapon's beak.[3] The name is a misnomer; the shape actually is modeled after that of the fruit of the pandanus.[2][3]
The spike ("beak") and head of the weapon were used to puncture the skull of the enemy and crush the head.[3][2] In addition to its functional use as a weapon of war, totokia were also status symbols.[4]
Totokia are held in the collections of several museums, including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa,[5] the Auckland Museum,[6][7][8] the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,[9] the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[4] the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts,[10] the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge,[11] the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas,[12] and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.[13]
African and oceanic art expert Bruno Claessens writes that the weapons carried by the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine in George Lucas' Star Wars were inspired by the totokia.[14]
