Linton — The Marquesas Islands 343 



considerable age. Of the carved specimens, one large and one small specimen arc 

 from Nuku Hiva and the other two from Hiva Oa. 



In all five pounders the material appears to be local, and as the use of 

 carved decoration on pounders is limited to the Marquesas, the theory of im- 

 portation may be discarded. The heads carved on the small examples show a 

 slight resemblance to those carved on the rarer type of tiki headed pounders, but 

 the angularity of the features on the larger specimens finds no parallel in other 

 Marquesan work. A similar angularity was noted, however, in some of the wood 

 carvings in the Society Islands. The form of these specimens also finds a fairly 

 close parallel in certain small specimens from Tahiti and in certain pounders of 

 coral rock from the Austral Islands. The similarity of the decoration on all Mar- 

 quesan conical pounders seems good evidence that it represents a distinct conven- 

 tion which was in some way linked with the conical form. The best explanation 

 of these facts seems to be that the conical pounders are hybrids which owe their 

 shape, and to a lesser degree the convention employed in their decoration, to a 

 Southeastern Polynesian influence. An alternative explanation is that the conical 

 pounders are archaic and that their carving shows a technique which is more 

 primitive than the historic Marquesan convention. 



COMPARISON OF MARQUESAN POUNDERS WITH OTHER POLYNESIAN TYPES 



Stone pounders appear to be entirely lacking in Melanesia unless we in- 

 clude vmder this head certain heavy, bottle-shaped implements used for cracking 

 nuts in the Solomon Islands and some archaeological finds in New Guinea. In 

 Micronesia, stone pounders were used in the Marshall and Caroline Islands but 

 seem to be lacking in the Gilbert Islands. In the Marshall Islands at least, they 

 were used side by side with wooden pounders of identical shape. All the Microne- 

 sian pounders appear to be of one type, with some minor variations in the treat- 

 ment of the upper surface of the head. They have been frequently described and 

 figured. 



The pounders of Polynesia must not be confused with the pestles which 

 were found in many parts of Polynesia, but seem to have been unknown in the 

 Marquesas. 



Stone pounders do not appear to have been used in Samoa or Tonga but 

 are found everywhere in marginal Polynesia with the possible exception of Easter 

 and Chatham Islands. The New Zealand pounders appear to be pestles rather 

 than true pounders and bear little resemblance to the other Polynesian forms. 

 The absence of broad based pounders in New Zealand is of little significance 

 in a comparative study, for these were specialized implements used i^rincip- 

 ally for crushing breadfruit or taro and would have been of little use there, 



[83] 



