Culture Hawai'i
Title Pendant Necklace (Lei Palaoa)
Date 1800–1850
Medium Walrus ivory, human hair, and and fiber
Dimensions Object: 14 1/8 × 6 7/8 × 3 3/8 in. (35.9 × 17.5 × 8.6 cm)
Overall: 14 1/8 × 6 7/8 × 3 3/8 in. (35.9 × 17.5 × 8.6 cm)
Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 80.23
About this Work
Visually, the lei palaoa is an object of contrasts: a hard, smooth piece of butter-colored ivory is set off by the dark, textured braids of multiple strands of human hair. These necklaces derived power from the materials used. Ivory was once a material reserved for chiefs, and human hair is filled with large amounts of mana, spiritual power, as it grows from the head. Additionally, through the act of braiding and through the recitation of prayers additional mana was imbued into the hair during the creation of the necklace.
Before European contact, a necklace such as this was worn by nobility of both sexes on ceremonial occasions or into battle as a symbol of their genealogical lineage. A woman considered her lei palaoa to be her most valuable personal possession, and for a man it was second only to his feather cape or cloak in importance. King Kamehameha I (ca. 1758–1819), who established the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1810, transformed the necklace into a symbol of his political power and authority. Under his successor, Kamehameha II, it became a status symbol that was no longer restricted to a particular group.
As elsewhere in Polynesia, ivory was a precious material for Hawaiians. Before European contact, it was very rare, obtained only from beached whales. With the coming of traders and whalers in the nineteenth century, however, not only did the availability of whale ivory increase, but walrus ivory, taken by ships from the Arctic seas before they entered the South Pacific, was introduced.
