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This handle is carved with four tikis, images of a deity in human form, an important motif in Marquesan culture. It once had a fan of braided pandanus leaves woven over the handle and is made of whale ivory (others were made of wood or bone). The handles are often the only remaining parts of the fan, because the woven leaves wear or rot away, leaving the hardier handles.
The handle has pairs of tiki figures standing back to back and retains the complex weave of plaited sennit strands originally joining the fan and handle. The fans made in the Marquesas were woven in well-crafted patterns and were straight at the top, which varies from other Polynesian fans that have curved or pointed tops. This straight top was difficult to use in a utilitarian way because it did not move as smoothly through the air as the Polynesian curved-top fans. This nonutilitarian construction shows that Marquesan fans were used as decorative items, to display status through the fine craftsmanship involved in their creation.
This fan probably was owned by a chief or other noble person and displayed to symbolize rank. This is strange because Marquesan society differs from that of other Polynesian groups in that it was not a highly stratified social system based on chiefs and genealogy. Movement through social ranks was much more fluid and could pass outside of hereditary inheritance from father to son. The display of rank through objects did occur, but would not seem to be as strict as object display in other Polynesian hierarchies.
