Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Simmons
Finally ready to show this. I know there is limited interest in this sort of thing.
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Don't worry, I'm sure there are those who are intrigued but unable to add much input. It was the same for Taiwanese aborignal knives - it's just not a collector's hot-spot so-to-speak. Nihonto, keris, Moro & Filipino, and Indo-Persian stuff is a whole 'nother story...
I for one am fascinated, but I don't have any authentic vintage/antique clubs or some immense wealth of knowledge ...I just have an old 70+ yr old set of apinaje bow and arrows, and it's Amazonian archery that I have more knowledge on.
More recently collected or not, this club is an example of their material culture, and even if it is a ceremonial-oriented object, or a warclub design no longer (if ever) used in war, it sheds light on what is, what was, and what may have been...
I did find this flat convex edged paddle-like club here at American Museum of Natural History:
http://anthro.amnh.org/south
They are attributed to the Wayana - you probably knew already.
What interests me somewhat is that it resembles one of the paddle-club shapes that Walter Roth describes. Essentially Don Arp, Jr. breaks down Guianan clubs as "block", "spatulate", "paddle", and "dagger"... he is mainly drawing upon Walter Roth's work I think.
I am getting my information from here:
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/vi...lock%20Club%22
That article has been posted on the Ethno. Arms & Armor forum before, in the macana/aputu thread.
Check page 15, the generalized shapes for the "paddle clubs" have one incomplete sketch on the right that resembles these Wayana clubs... Where-as the left-most I have seen attributed to Kali'na/Caribe and Makushi... and the centeral one I have seen in depictions of Arawaks/Lokonos.
These clubs, having two bulges and a spike remind me of an arawak club:
http://www.americanindian.si.edu/sea...size=75&page=1
which looks relatively similar to the central sketch of paddle clubs in the Aputu article I linked to earlier...