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Samoan Material Culture

The Ear-Shaped, Or Mushroom Club

The Ear-Shaped, Or Mushroom Club

Structural pattern. The clubs shown in Plate LII, A, 4-6 are termed fa'alautalinga (fa'a, shaped like; lautalinga, a toadstool, or the lobe of the ear). Churchill has accepted the toadstool meaning of lautalinga and hence termed the type mushroom clubs. Looking at the matter from the point of view of the craftsman's structural pattern and the object to which he compared it, the toadstool is much less likely to form the name motive than the lobe of the ear. The toadstool I never saw or heard of during my sojourn in Samoa, but the ear is always present and frequently referred to. The craftsman in adzing out his structural pattern shaped it like two ears placed together, as the club was bilateral, and with the lobes forming the curve to the external angles.

Three clubs, selected from the eight weapons in Bishop Museum (Pl. LII, A, 4-6) show the varieties. (See fig. 314.) The length of the head is from the level of the external angles or lobes to the distal end. The proximal thickness is also taken from this point.

From the figure, the shorter length is apparent for the clubs are full sized weapons. The head increases in thickness to the distal end, which in one club is 2.4 inches. The surfaces of the club are sloped outwards from the middle line so as to form a marked longitudinal edge which becomes more page 602prominent as the head thickens, for the surfaces are then made with a concavity. The end transverse curved edge ends at the proximal widest part of the head. From these points, the head curves inward towards the middle line from either side sharply to form external angles and then slopes gradually back to form an expanded shaft which narrows to the grip. Sometimes the lateral curves may be so marked as to give the external angles a hook-like appearance. The actual edge of the long end curve is the full thickness of the club in the middle line, but narrows gradually out towards the external angles. There has never been any attempt made to bevel clown the edge to a sharp cutting edge. The club is evidently intended as a close striking club which depends on weight and not keenness of cutting edge. The grips are
Figure 314.—Types of ear shaped clubs (fa'alautalinga):

Figure 314.—Types of ear shaped clubs (fa'alautalinga):

a, Aberrant form of ear-shaped club with typical angles (1) which slope in to an expanded blade (2) ending in shoulder (4); the proximal end is flared and has a suspensory lug (3) length, 46 inches. The club is in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and is figured by Edge-Partington (10, vol. 2, 41, No. 2). It may be the precursor of the shorter clubs. b, Variety a; short light form with narrow head; used with one hand. (See Plate LII, A, 4). c, Variety b, even semicircular head, heavy, used with two hands. (See Plate LII, A, 5). d, Variety c, flattened end curve, almost rectangular appearance. (See Plate LII, A, 6.) The clubs (b, c and d) have all got well marked external angles (1), from which the shape (2) converges to the shaft while the proximal ends are all flared and have suspensory lugs (3).
Table of Measurements (in Inches)
bcd
Length24.26.522.5
Head length3.46.44.4
Head width6.310.7511.75
Head prox. thickness1.31.62.
Head distal thickness1.81.82.4
Grip, transverse diameter1.41.61.45
Grip, vertical diameter1.21.51.5
Handle end, transverse2.12.51.9
Handle end, vertical2.02.12.2
page 603 thicker than usual and the flared proximal ends are provided with lugs. The wide lateral expansion of the head affects the grip which is wider in the transverse diameter than in the vertical except in the club where the pronounced median longitudinal edge is carried down on the shaft and though rounded off on the grip, the vertical diameter of both grip and flared end is greater than the transverse. The three varieties of the type may be summarized as follows: a, narrow head and lighter made to serve as a single handed club. (See Plate LII, A, 4; figure 314 b.) b, Even semicircular curved head made heavy for use with both hands. (See Plate LII, A, 5; figure 314 c.) c, Flattened end curve giving almost a rectangular appearance. (See Plate LII, A, 6; figure 314 d.)

Edge-Partington (10, vol. 2, p. 41, No. 2) figures a club 46 inches long in the Pitt-Rivers Museum. (See figure 314, a). This aberrant form shows an ear-shaped head with the lateral curves prolonged proximally to form a blade somewhat like a coconut stalk club. The ear-shaped club is a specialized short club which is more likely to have sprung from a long type of club than to have commenced short. The origin of the type from a long club seems further supported by the fact that it is made from a split plank and not from a round sapling or bough like the knobbed clubs and the maces.

All the clubs are carved on the head and the lateral expansions from the shaft.