Tiki

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This article is about the large Polynesian carvings in humanoid form. For other uses see Tiki (disambiguation).

A Māori man retouches the painted tattoo on a carved wooden tiki at Whakarewarewa Model Village, New Zealand, 1905.

In Central Eastern Polynesian cultures of the Pacific Ocean, tiki is a name given to large carvings of humanoid form. These carvings often serve to mark the boundaries of sacred or significant sites. The word appears as tiki in New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and Marquesan; as ti'i in Tahitian, and as ki'i in Hawaiian. The word has not been recorded from the languages of Western Polynesia or of Rapanui (Easter Island).

[edit] See also

• Hei-tiki, Māori neck pendants, sometimes erroneously called tiki
• Tiki, the first man in Māori mythology
• Moai, a monolithic human figure on Easter Island, erroneously called tiki
• Tiki culture

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