Body, Message and Empowerment: Shields in Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia
Body, message and empowerment: shields in Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia
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(pp12 - 18); all references quoted by Tavarelli are cited in the bibliography)
The association of shields with the human body, which they are made to protect, is inescapable. ... In the following discussion, I examine various references to the body expressed through the shield form. I look at some unique ways in which the cultures represented in this exhibition used shields as protection against physical and spiritual danger. We will see how the visual aspects of shields were used to broadcast power messages and empowered their bearers, and explore the purposes of display. ...
The bodies of the men who made shields served as a benchmark in their design. [A] Nias shield was meant to be carried in the left hand, so that the right remained free to carry a sword. An unequal space around the carved handle on the reverse side (fig 1) allowed the knuckles and back of the left hand to fit comfortably around the grip. This feature can be found on many shields with a raised boss in the center which permitted the handle to be carved out rather than attached... When I first saw the Elema shields I puzzled over their odd notched shape with unequal arms at the top. Responding as a western artist, I initially thought the shape to be a formal solution to an aesthetic issue, or the expression of a symbolic meaning unknown to me. The field notes (Peabody Museum, Harvard) provided a succinct explanation of form following function. These shields hung from the shoulder, allowing the bow arm to pass over the shield face, thus freeing and protecting the body simultaneously. The shorter 'limb' would have been easier to see over (fig 2). ....
.... Asmat legend speaks of the creator god Fumerpitsj, a master carver who fashioned the first Asmat from a tree. Ritual and oral traditions make repeated reference to the identity of human and tree. Shields, made from the huge buttress roots of swamp growing trees are, in the Asmat mind, embedded in this cosmic relationship. In a large powerful shield from central Asmat [shown in the related exhibition] the expressively carved figure at the top was most likely the relative or ancestor of the original owner after whom the shield was named. The custom of naming significant objects continues among the Asmat, both as a means of empowerment and to honor ancestors. The spirit of the ancestor was believed to enter the shield to become a psychologically powerful stand-in for the person. The warrior equipped with his shield did not enter battle alone but with the power and presence of his ancestor....
The ways in which shields recall both body and person are ways by which they enter the realm of charged objects. In the cultures of origin, these signs, symbols and handmarks of their making were reinforced by ceremony and ritual that connected them to ancestors and the spirit world, and imbued them with a life-force. On exhibit, more than simply presenting themselves as available to our gaze, the shields engage us, insisting that we recognize their personification of spirit and the substance of humanness.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, fighting, a constant in many villages of Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia, was varied in type: routs, ambushes, head hunting raids, duels, ceremonial battles, squirmishes [sic] and full scale war. Tribal shields were crafted in radically different forms to serve the diversity of functions required by these different circumstances. The small round shield from Simeulue Indonesia [shown at the exhibition] clearly offered little to hide behind compared to the large and cumbersome shields of the Maring and Malol, both tribes of New Guinea [also shown there]. Hand sized, quick to manipulate and covered with extremely abrasive ray skin decorated with galvanized nails, it was well suited to parrying in close combat. The Moluccan shield [similar to four of the shields in the Pitt Rivers display at Bethnal Green; 1884.30.28, 1884.30.29, 1884.30.30, and 1884.30.31] with a ridged hourglass shape was made for a similar use. Its physical and visual weight push toward top and bottom, adding torque to the pivotally placed handle at the center so that the weapon could be whipped to deflect blows, and wielded aggressively as a club.
The many torso sized shields in this exhibit, such as from the Trobriand Islands and the Philippines were constructed to be easily carried, yet were substantive enough to absorb the blows of arrows, swords, or spears. ...
Many of the shields ... go beyond being shapeless chunks of unadorned wood, and we quickly surmise that intentions other than providing physical defense were at work in their creation. Protection was a complex issue in cultures where warfare was often highly ritualized, and at times, assumed almost mythic proportions. Powers from the realm of the spirits, ever watchful in daily life, were palpably present in conflict. Many of the carved and painted images on these shields are visual attempts to muster spiritual forces to protect the warriors. Shields, as vehicles of communication with these powers, generate high visual intensity.
Spiritual protection comes from the enemy's perception of the shields' visual power, and through the sense of empowerment that the images impart to their bearers. These two aspects coincide in the Asmat shield discussed earlier. The ancestors' spirit, present in the carved and painted motifs, emboldens the owner as he enters the fray. The power of the designs were also thought to frighten the enemy to such an extent that the was caused to flee (Schneebaum 1990:37). The iconic images derived from creatures of the natural world associated with head-hunting, a cornerstone of Asmat belief and ritual that persisted well into this century, were understood by the carver and his tribe. Although ritual groups lived in geographic and cultural proximity, it is unclear to me if the symbolism of the designs were understood by the opposition with specificity. More likely these symbols were viscerally experienced through the visual as generalized declarations of power.
The image of the aso, a mythical beast, is considered to be a visual hybrid of dog and dragon. Like the demonic head, it appears frequently in the various Dayak cultures of Borneo. Its origins have been variously linked to the Karen tribes of Burma (McBain 1981:124) and, by Heine Geldern, to an adaptation of the dragon found on Chinese trade ceramics. Some writers trace it to the early Dongson culture of Southeast Asia and see overlays of Indian and Hindu motifs modified by plants and fauna native to Indonesia (Taylor 1991:168). Researchers generally agree that the aso functioned as a protective image against malevolent spirits, which may explain its presence on shields, baby carriers and houses. On this striking Kayan shield the aso diagonally traverses the entire front. The asymmetry of the composition lends dynamism to the image which broadcasts a surging elan that alerted the enemy to the supernatural strength of its bearer. The Dayak shield [similar shields, 1884.30.36 and 1884.30.37, formed part of the PR Bethnal Green displays] integrates abstracted aso motifs that configure the fanged countenance that dominates the front. These images were made not only to scare the enemy but to do him actual harm. The reverse of these shields facing the bearer are less threatening. The carnivorous faces are supplanted by charming human figures, tendrils and plant derived designs. The dynamic and sinuous visual language of these shields speaks of the fecundity of living things, and the entwinement of the human, natural and spirit worlds (Taylor 1991:166). This approach is typical of Dayak art and craft. I cautiously suggest this as an example of how a visual style that reflects a world view of one society (Dayak), can be similarly interpreted within a different (western) aesthetic-cultural system.
Display is another characteristic of shields explored in this exhibition. The term is here employed as it is in common usage to mean to exhibit, to flaunt, to give prominence to or to make an arrangement to please the eye. Among the Kayan Dayak, display, in the service of identity, is exemplified in the use of both the aso and the tendriled demonic figure. These images are usually reserved for members highly placed in the social strata. An aso design tattooed on the thigh of a Kayan woman identified her as a member of the higher classes. According to the Kayan, tattoo designs acted as a torch to the next world and without them the future would be one of total darkness (McBain 1981:124). So, too, this image displayed on a shield, speaks both of protection and the identity of the bearer. Although the warrior was not necessarily of high birth, he fought for a noble family and was strengthened by this identification. The chiefs of noble families (believed to be closer to the deities), enlisted the spiritual forces of the ancestors for the benefit of the entire clan (Feldman 1985:114)...
...Issues of protection, power and display expressed through shields have been discussed in the context of the indigenous people who made and used them, and through the eyes of a western artist enthralled by their remarkable visual power. Shields bear the imprint of responses to the forces which surrounded crucial events that endangered the bodies and spirits of their creators. The visual dynamism of these protective objects and the often charged references to the body, testify to their original and present importance as maps of human experience.
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