Dance Club

ClassificationsArms and Armor-clubs

Culturepossibly Ni-Vanuatu

Date20th Century

Made AtShefa Province, Vanuatu

MediumWood

Dimensions33 × 2 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (83.8 × 7 × 6.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of Anne and Long Shung Shih

Object number2019.2.14

DescriptionBased on an aggregation of stylistic markers only found in Vanuatu, this dance club evidently hails from the country’s Efate Island. Though this object draws heavily on the forms of Vanuatu clubs it is both short enough and light enough that it could not have been used for combat. Combined with the curious synthesis of forms, this club is likely a more recent reinterpretation of an older style of Vanuatu club. As was the case with many Oceanic Islands, this may have been created sometime after colonization, when open warfare was outlawed. As for the individual forms, clubs capped with two convex cones have been collected from Vanuatu since the 19th Century, evidenced by Efate clubs in the British Museum’s collections. The openwork section with one central shaft surrounded by three or four convex supports is also characteristic to the knobs of clubs from this region, though it is a more-common element of eating knives as the structurally weak region would not negatively affect the usage of the object. The element at the other end of this club is perhaps a minimalist reinterpretation of the heavy geometric knobs that rested underneath the conical elements of Efate clubs.

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