Weapons case

KuKulzA28 · 26th January 2011, 03:19 PM

WOW! I have never seen such a big collection of 1900s Paiwanese souvenir weapons! The Paiwan are an aboriginal group at the southern tip of Taiwan island (formerly known as Formosa)...

While these are old souvenir items, and not the "real deal" it may be worth keeping because, personally, I have never seen such a complete set! While these may not be headhunting and survival worthy, and were probably looked on as a necessary commercial venture by some Paiwan, they do represent an important, more recent part of Paiwan (and Taiwanese) history.

Just my opinion of course... very few people today have any knowledge of Taiwanese traditional weapons and even fewer actually have antique or recently made examples. While they're souvenirs, made for tourists, I think you should still consider yourself lucky to have this "weapons" case.

I once owned a souvenir knife like the curved one in that box, and it was pretty sharp and probably pretty use-able. As for the utility of the items in YOUR set, they may vary from low quality, to pretty decent - but I don't think they generally had as much skill put into them as "real" Paiwan weapons.

As for your question, did they hunt humans... well Taiwan (and much of SE Asia) was known for headhunters... but they did not use sword-canes, and did not know of such things until Chinese traders/settlers/warriors arrived. Taiwanese aborigines, like most Austronesian headhunters, used axes and machete-like blades for their headhunting... hidden and secret weapons like sword-canes seem to be more common in societies where ruler's or social norms forbade openly carrying weapons by normal folks - those are also usually more stratified societies.

26th January 2011, 03:19 PM	#7
KuKulzA28 Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: between work and sleep Posts: 731	WOW! I have never seen such a big collection of 1900s Paiwanese souvenir weapons! The Paiwan are an aboriginal group at the southern tip of Taiwan island (formerly known as Formosa)... While these are old souvenir items, and not the "real deal" it may be worth keeping because, personally, I have never seen such a complete set! While these may not be headhunting and survival worthy, and were probably looked on as a necessary commercial venture by some Paiwan, they do represent an important, more recent part of Paiwan (and Taiwanese) history. Just my opinion of course... very few people today have any knowledge of Taiwanese traditional weapons and even fewer actually have antique or recently made examples. While they're souvenirs, made for tourists, I think you should still consider yourself lucky to have this "weapons" case. I once owned a souvenir knife like the curved one in that box, and it was pretty sharp and probably pretty use-able. As for the utility of the items in YOUR set, they may vary from low quality, to pretty decent - but I don't think they generally had as much skill put into them as "real" Paiwan weapons. As for your question, did they hunt humans... well Taiwan (and much of SE Asia) was known for headhunters... but they did not use sword-canes, and did not know of such things until Chinese traders/settlers/warriors arrived. Taiwanese aborigines, like most Austronesian headhunters, used axes and machete-like blades for their headhunting... hidden and secret weapons like sword-canes seem to be more common in societies where ruler's or social norms forbade openly carrying weapons by normal folks - those are also usually more stratified societies.