The Case of the Misplaced Ponchos

Abstract

Research in material culture studies has demonstrated that novel things can be assimilated to existing categories. This approach has implied that indigenous cultures in particular typically employ conservative strategies, in the sense that their recontextualizations of material culture aim to preserve a prior order, rather than produce a new one. This paper emphasizes instead the use of objects to create novel and distinctive values and social orders. It proceeds through discussion of the Polynesian garments known as tiputa or ponchos, which were originally made primarily in Tahiti, but came to be widely distributed in western as well as eastern Polynesia, where their adoption was associated with conversion to Christianity.