As a general rule, savages are less skilful in the delineation of the
human form than they are with representations of animals, nor is it
usually employed so frequently as might be expected.
It is for religious purposes that the human form is most frequently
represented, and I refer the reader to the section in which religion
is dealt with for illustrations of this fact. I employ the term “human
form” advisedly, as this includes the images of both gods and men. At
one stage of its evolution in the human mind, deity, like the Spectre
of Brocken, is the shadowy image of man projected on the clouds. So
the gods are most naturally represented as men, but often with special
attributes. Now, these attributes are worthy of special study as being
the milestones which indicate the distance which any given religious
conception has traversed.
In the distant vista of time we can dimly perceive the transformation
of the totem animal into the god. In the highest period of Greek
sculpture the evolution was, for example, perfected in “ox-eyed lady
Hera,” consort of Olympian Zeus, and in the Cnidian statue of Demeter,
“Mother-Earth,” whose archaic representation was a wooden image of a
woman with a mare’s head and mane. For thousands of years the Egyptian
pantheon was peopled by gods arrested in the process—gorgonised
tadpoles of divinity. Still earlier stages may even now be noted among
savage peoples.
I know of no example of the preponderating employment of the human face
for decorative purposes to be compared with what I have established for
the natives of the Papuan Gulf. Illustrations of this will be found in
Figs. 10-19, and in my Memoir on Papuan Art, but only an examination of
a large number of objects from this district of British New Guinea will
bring home to the student the remarkable ubiquity of the motive. We
have no information concerning the reason for copying human faces; my
impression is that it is related to the initiation ceremonies, which we
know from the accounts of the Rev. James Chalmers to be very prolonged
and important. One would expect to find more animal representations
among these people than appear on objects in our ethnographical
collections. Possibly these people are passing from the totemistic
into the anthropomorphic phase of religion, and the latter finds most
expression in their art. However, such speculations are futile until
we obtain far more detailed and extended information of their religion
than we at present possess.
Human beings are comparatively rarely represented merely for decorative
purposes. In pictographs they have no predominating position. But when
we come to portraiture the matter is very different; here we have an
adequate motive for the delineation of the human form and face; it is,
however, very noteworthy that portraiture, as such, only occurs amongst
civilised communities. Possibly the explanation of this may be found
in the widespread savage philosophy of sympathetic magic. According to
this system a portrait has a very vital connection with the subject,
and any damage done to the counterfeit would be experienced by the
original. Portraiture then would be too hazardous to health, or even
life, to be lightly undertaken.
What we have seen happening to plants and animals is also the fate of
men in decorative art. A few examples here will suffice.
New Zealand is one of the places where anthropomorphs abound, due in
this case to ancestor cult. The short series of three clubs (Plate
VI., Figs. 10-12) illustrates the metamorphosis of the limbs into
curvilinear forms. In dealing with the religion of Polynesia I give
examples (Figs. 124-128) of the degradation of the human form into
“geometrical” patterns.
In the various illustrations which have been given representations of
the human form may be isolated, as in Melanesia (Fig. 3, O), Mangaia
(Fig. 124), and New Zealand (Plate VI., Figs. 10, 12), or they may be
double; for example, one frequently finds in Polynesia two god-figures
placed back to back, and these may strangely degenerate, as in the
examples given by Stolpe[104] and Read.[105] Human forms placed in
linear series are frequent in Mangaian wood-carving (Figs. 127 and 125,
A). Fig. 126 illustrates the decoration of a broader area.
[104] H. Stolpe, _Evolution in the Ornamental Art of Savage
Peoples_. Figs. 3, 34.
[105] C. H. Read, “On the Origin and Sacred Character of
certain Ornaments of the S.E. Pacific,” _Journ. Anth. Inst._,
xxi., 1891, Plate XII.
We get examples of the selection of one portion of the man in the face
patterns of the Papuan Gulf. (Figs. 10-19.)
These are undoubtedly conscious selections from the very commencement,
but we find various parts of the body come to be perpetuated, with the
elimination of the remainder, owing to differing causes.
The reason for the simplification of the body and the disappearance of
the head in the Mangaian art is probably partly due to the fact that
savage peoples are usually quite content with suggestions of objects,
they do not demand what we term realism. By conventionalising their
representations the Mangaians were better able to multiply them, and at
the same time to appropriately decorate the object with which they were
concerned. It could not be with a view of economising time or labour.
“Time,” as Stolpe says, “is for them of no importance, they have plenty
of it, and usually they are not able even to reckon it.” Judging by the
skill exhibited by these clever carvers in wood, we cannot put down the
simplification of the human body to careless copying.
We have seen that the face may be represented to the exclusion of any
other part of the body, but there are examples of parts of the face
becoming predominant.
Professor Moseley[106] was, I believe, the first to indicate the
evolution which occurred in the images of gods in the Hawaian group.
In some instances the hollow crescent form, which came to represent a
face, seems to have been arrived at by an enormous increase in the size
of the mouth; in others, as in the case of some wicker images, by a
hollowing out of the face altogether; the mouth in the latter, though
large, not being widened so as to encroach upon the whole area of the
face. Since, in the worship of the gods, food was placed in the mouths,
the mouths may have been gradually enlarged as the development of the
religion proceeded, in order to contain larger and larger offerings,
and the head in the wicker-work image may have been hollowed out for
a similar purpose. Moseley traced the degeneration of the human (or
god’s) face down to a hook-shaped ornament cut out of a sperm whale’s
tooth.
[106] H. N. Moseley, _Notes by a Naturalist on the
“Challenger_,” 1879, pp. 504-511.
Some of the carvings of the human face from New Zealand bear a general
resemblance to those from Hawaii; but a very noticeable feature in
the art of the former island is the protruding tongue. The most
interesting development of this member occurs in the Maori _hani_, or
staff of office. At the upper end is what appears, at first sight, to
be a spear-point. “This portion, however, does not serve the purpose
of offence, but is simply a conventional representation of the human
tongue, which, when thrust forth to its utmost conveys, according to
Maori ideas, the most bitter insult and defiance. When the chief wishes
to make war against any tribe, he calls his own people together, makes
a fiery oration, and repeatedly thrusts his _hani_ in the direction of
the enemy, each such thrust being accepted as a putting forth of the
tongue in defiance. In order to show that the point of the _hani_ is
really intended to represent the human tongue, the remainder of it is
carved into a grotesque and far-fetched resemblance of the human face,
the chief features of which are two enormous circular eyes made of
haliotis shell.”[107]
[107] J. G. Wood, _The Natural History of Man_, ii., 1870,
p. 161.
My friend, S. Tsuboi, has made a special study[108] of the protruding
tongue in New Zealand art. He gives illustrations of thirty-one
specimens, and with characteristic Japanese ingenuity he has drawn
figures of half-a-dozen models which he has constructed which
illustrate the various possible variations, and the lines they may
have taken. He has also made numerical tables of possible varieties.
I allude to, this paper in order to draw the attention of students to
graphic methods. I regret that my ignorance of the Japanese language
precludes my giving the results of this investigation.
[108] S. Tsuboi, “On the Degeneration of Tongue-thrusting
Figures in New Zealand Carvings,” _Tōyō Gakugei Zasshi_
(_Oriental Scientific Magazine_), No. 112, Jan. 25th, 1891.
In Ancient Egypt the eye was symbolic, and numberless amulets are
found which exhibit one, two, or numerous eyes in varying stages of
degeneracy, or in strange modifications. These, too, have been studied
and described by Tsuboi.[109]
[109] _Oriental Scientific Magazine_, Nov. 25th, 1889.