82 The exhibition transitions to this chapter of Marquesan history with a passageway dedicated to the portraits and journals of early explorers and visitors. This is followed by an area that looks at the changes that took place in the Marquesas over the course of the nineteenth century. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, there were few visible changes in Marquesan culture. Marquesans were eager to trade for practical things such as metal and cotton cloth. Metal tools allowed carvers to work more quickly and easily, carving deeper and more complex designs. Using heated metal, they engraved designs on fl utes and containers in bamboo. Colorful glass beads were sought to add to ornaments, as was anything in the sacred color red, especially clothing and feathers. The greatest demand was for sperm whale teeth, reserved for elite men. Sandalwood traders, who arrived in 1811, traded them in such abundant numbers they became commonplace, and they were carved into objects such as tobacco pipes. By the 1820s, muskets, gunpowder, and ammunition became the main objects of exchange. Violence increased, and with the introduction of new diseases, the population went into rapid decline. From an estimated 100,000 in the eighteenth century, the population declined to 20,000 by the 1830s and 5,000 in 1880s.3 European and North American visitors to the Marquesas came from many different disciplines and with different perspectives. These are documented in the journals, drawings, and photographs made by military men, missionaries, writers, anthropologists, and artists. They include famous names such as Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson, Julien Viaud (Pierre Loti), and Paul Gauguin. The last part of this section focuses on the new style of carving that emerged in the last decades of the nineteenth century, when Marquesans began to make new objects in a new style and with a new function, specifi - cally intended for sale. They began to carve tattoo designs in low relief on the surfaces of a variety of objects. These were mostly carvings that were smaller, lighter in weight, and made from woods that were easier to carve than had been used earlier. They include wooden bowls, paddles, model clubs and canoes, and carved coconuts. The exhibition closes by looking at the vitality and vibrancy of Marquesan arts today, the result of a cultural renewal that began in the 1970s. The fi rst presented is tattoo, an important symbol of pride and identity. Also of great signifi cance are the festivals of the arts, matavaa, held every two years, which feature dances and chants performed to the rhythm of wooden drums. FIG. 12 (above): Coconut vessel, ipu èhi. Marquesas Islands. Coconut, coconut fi ber, pigment. H: 15.5 cm. Private collection. © MQB. Photo: Claude Germain. FIGS. 13 and 14 (left and below): Full view and detail of a coconut vessel, ipu èhi, created by Charles Seigel. Omoa, Fatu Iva, Marquesas Islands. 1997. Coconut, pigment. H: 15 cm. Carol S. Ivory Collection, Seattle. © MQB. Photo: Claude Germain.
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