Another item from a bygone era tossed out with the trash — tiki torches. There was a time in the U.S. when all things Polynesian including tiki torches were very popular. Tiki bars were common. The tiki torches are very functional and decorative for backyard barbecues or celebrations of any sort. Of course, there haven’t been a lot of backyard barbecues or celebrations where you invite all the neighbors for quite some time during the pandemic. There is no question that tiki torches certainly add a festive air to any occasion. Apparently, the tiki torches on the curb had outlived their usefulness. Torches can be ugly as when white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia, or they can stand for international pride as when the Olympic torch is lit. Torches have been around since the ancient Romans. Let’s find out more about them.
According to Sarah Bond’s Aug. 15, 2017 article “A Short History of Torches and Intimidation” in Forbes, fire was a constant hazard in the ancient world. Property owners, apartment dwellers, city magistrates, and emperors lived in fear of the potential damage caused by unchecked fires in urban areas in particular. Torches could be used to light weddings as they frequently were, but could also be used by soldiers as weapons particularly during siege warfare. They were also carried by rioters wishing to brandish a dangerous weapon which, in Latin, was called a "fax."
Following the assassination of Caesar in 44 BCE, the citizens in Rome who gathered in the Forum to hear Antony's eulogy grabbed pieces of wood and furniture in the area in order to make an ad hoc pyre upon which to burn the dictator's body. Many present at the cremation then grabbed pieces of flaming wood as torches from the pyre. As the historian Plutarch noted, "people rushed up from all sides, snatched up half-burnt brands, and ran round to the houses of Caesar's slayers to set them on fire."
Fire provided light in a world without electricity, but torches were never devoid of the potential to cause harm. They also signaled at least the potential for violence to break out. In the gospels, we see the threatening use of the torch as well. When Judas finds Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in the John 18:3, it notes: "So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons." Romans regularly used small ceramic oil lamps to light their way in houses and while walking at night, but here the aggressive detachment sent to arrest Jesus is emphatically described by John as brandishing "torches, lanterns and weapons."
If we look to modern history to understand how torches became a symbol of not only intimidation but specifically racial intimidation, we must look both to America in the aftermath of the Civil War and to Nazi Germany of the 1930s and 40s. In response to the rights given to African Americans following the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan formed in Pulaski, Tennessee in the late 1860s. The group took their nomenclature from the Greek word κύκλος, which means "circle"; a word often used in antiquity to refer to how hunters encircled their game. Torches became a consistently described part of the Klan's early parades and use of visual intimidation. They would continue to be a terrifying feature of the organization when it reemerged in the early 20th century.
Torches used as statements of power and racial superiority were even more prominent in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. On August 1, 1936, a new tradition was introduced to the modern Olympic Games — the use of a torch relay wherein individual runners brought the Olympic flame from Greece to Berlin, connecting the ancient world to Germany. The ancient Greeks had indeed used torches in athletics, but the Nazis appropriated the torch as a symbol of both athletic and racial supremacy.
According to Dr. Tom Ryan’s Aug. 21, 2017 article “How the Tiki torch was co-opted by white supremacists” at trtworld.com, it was the three great Pacific voyages of Captain James Cook, undertaken between 1769 and 1779, that initiated the appropriations of indigenous concepts. The first term to be borrowed by Europeans was “tattaw,” which Cook recorded in 1769-1770 regarding the decorative incising and inking of skins by the peoples of Tahiti and New Zealand. Crew members on his ships were enthusiastic recipients of this art form. And soon it was being spelled “tattoo,” which is how the word and its craft are still known today.
Another Pacific Island concept recorded by Cook was “taboo.” He noted it in Tonga in 1777, in respect to locals’ refusal to sit and eat because “a thing is forbidden.” In all modern Polynesian cultures, “tapu” — which might translate as either or both “forbidden” and “sacred” — continues to be meaningful. Later Sigmund Freud, founder of 20th century psychoanalysis, incorporated “taboo” into his theoretical toolbox, and it continues to be debated in the wider world.
Then there is “mana,” which seems to have been appropriated from diverse Polynesian cultures between 1835 and 1845. It refers to “a life force,” especially in association with high social status or ritual power. In the last century, this concept was interrogated by scholars including Marcel Mauss, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Derrida, and since then it's been appropriated by commercial parties ranging from new age healers to online gamers.
In 2016, too, Walt Disney Pictures released its award-winning fantasy-adventure film “Moana,” about the strong-willed daughter of a Polynesian chief of ancient times. When hardship hits her island, Moana set off to find Maui, a shape-shifting demi-god and revered catcher-of-the-sun and fisher-of-islands. The film involved extensive consultation with Polynesian communities and experts, and most actors in the film are themselves Polynesian; wrestler Dwayne Johnson of Samoan descent played the role of culture hero Maui.
Which brings us back to Tiki. He too was a Polynesian culture hero, especially in Tahiti and Marquesas (French Polynesia), Rarotonga and Mangaia (Cook Islands) and Aotearoa (New Zealand). According to Wikipedia, in Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne. He found the first woman, Marikoriko, in a pond; she seduced him and he became the father of Hine-kau-ataata. By extension, a tiki is a large or small wooden or stone carving in humanoid form, although this is a somewhat archaic usage in the Māori language. Carvings similar to tikis and coming to represent deified ancestors are found in most Polynesian cultures. They often serve to mark the boundaries of sacred or significant sites.
According to Lee Wallender’s July 8, 2017 article “Tiki Torch: See How This Icon of Mid-Century Polynesian Pop Culture Started” at invisiblethemepark.com, Tiki Torch is a brand name currently owned by Lamplight Farms Inc., a “Leisure and lifestyle brands” company. Its initial manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $4.99. Many Tiki Torch brand torches today cost around that same amount.
The 1947 voyage of Kon-Tiki was the basis for the word “tiki.” According to Wikipedia, The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be an old name. Kon-Tiki is also the name of Heyerdahl's book, the Academy Award-winning 1950 documentary film chronicling his adventures, and the 2012 dramatized feature film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have reached Polynesia during pre-Columbian times. His aim in mounting the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so. Although the expedition carried some modern equipment, such as a radio, watches, charts, sextant and metal knives, Heyerdahl argued they were incidental to the purpose of proving that the raft itself could make the journey.
Heyerdahl's hypothesis of a South American origin of the Polynesian peoples, as well as his "drift voyaging" hypothesis, is overwhelmingly rejected by scientists today. Archaeological, linguistic, cultural and genetic evidence tends to support a western origin from Maritime Southeast Asia (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and East Timor) for Polynesians using sophisticated multihull sailing technologies and navigation techniques during the Austronesian expansion. Austronesian-speaking peoples are a large group of various peoples in Taiwan — collectively known as Taiwanese indigenous peoples, Maritime Southeast Asia, Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia) and Madagascar. However, there is evidence of some geneflow from South America to Easter Island, special territory of Chile.
The Kon-Tiki expedition was funded by private loans, along with donations of equipment from the United States Army. Heyerdahl and a small team went to Peru, where, with the help of dockyard facilities provided by the Peruvian authorities, they constructed the raft out of balsa logs and other native materials in an indigenous style as recorded in illustrations by Spanish conquistadores. The trip began on April 28, 1947. Heyerdahl and five companions sailed the raft for 101 days over 4,300 miles across the Pacific Ocean before smashing into a reef at Raroia in the Tuamotus on August 7, 1947. The crew made successful landfall, and all returned safely.
Thor Heyerdahl's book about his experience became a bestseller. It was published in Norwegian in 1948 as “The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas,” later reprinted as “Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft.” It appeared with great success in English in 1950, also in many other languages. A documentary motion picture about the expedition, also called “Kon-Tiki,” was produced from a write-up and expansion of the crew's filmstrip notes and won an Academy Award in 1951. It was directed by Heyerdahl and edited by Olle Nordemar. The voyage was also chronicled in the documentary TV-series “The Kon-Tiki Man: The Life and Adventures of Thor Heyerdahl,” directed by Bengt Jonson.
According to Lee Wallender’s July 8, 2017 article “Tiki Torch: See How This Icon of Mid-Century Polynesian Pop Culture Started” at invisiblethemepark.com, in 1956, Tiki torches began to be produced in the most un-Polynesian of all places — Belgium, Wisconsin. The original location at 600 Park Street is now occupied by Holiday Trims Inc.
In June 1956, the first Tiki torches began to be sold around the Los Angeles area for $4.99 per torch and $0.99 for a quart of the safety fuel. It was a slow start for Tiki Torch with products sold only in the L.A. area that first summer.
Surprisingly enough, the bamboo poles and reed housings that we are familiar with today were not present at that time. The original Tiki Torches were constructed of 100% aluminum, in antique copper, antique brass and satin ebony finishes. The poles came in separate sections that were fitted together to form a single 6 ft. pole. From an ad:
Enjoy the decorative mood set by this new lighting. This smart-looking TIKI TORCH will keep away annoying insects while adding a touch of scenic glamour that is reminiscent of the enchantment of the South Seas. “Welcome, have fun…” that’s what your TIKI TORCH will say to friends who call…
By the end of summer 1956, L.A.-based pharmacy Thrifty had slashed the price by a dollar. By September, Tiki Torches had pretty much disappeared from stores for that summer season.
It wasn’t until December 25, 1956 that Tiki got around to filing the trademark on the name Tiki Torch.
Next summer, Tiki Torches began to be sold across the United States. That $4.99 MSRP held firm for about three years, until interest began to wane. By 1960, Tiki Torches could be scooped up for as little as $0.99 in some California stores.
Other brands, such as NOMA Luau Torches, Tonga Torches, Mai Kai Torches and Tropic Torches began to dilute the market, as well.
Tiki Torches and tiki culture in general were moribund through the period 1965 to 2003. Interest in mid-century modern Polynesian culture rose again in the mid-2000s when Sven A. Kirsten published the Taschen book “The Book of Tiki.” The “Mad Men” TV series also helped contribute to this mid-2010s interest in Polynesian pop culture, especially in Season 6, when Don and Megan go to Hawaii.
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