This is not a grass skirt : on fibre skirts (liku) and female tattooing (veiqia) in nineteenth century Fiji
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
This is not a grass skirt : on fibre skirts (liku) and female tattooing (veiqia) in nineteenth century Fiji
Sidestone Press, c2019
- : hardcover
Available at 1 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-202) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Pacific 'grass skirt' has provoked debates about the demeaning and sexualised depiction of Pacific bodies. While these stereotypical portrayals associated with 'nakedness' are challenged in this book, the complex uses and meanings of the garments themselves are examined, including their link to other body adornments and modifications. In nineteenth-century Fiji, beautiful fibre skirts (liku) in a great variety of shapes and colours were lifetime companions for women. First fitted around puberty when she received her veiqia (tattooing), women's successive liku were adapted at marriage and during maternity, performing a multiplicity of social functions.
This book is based on a systematic investigation of previously understudied liku in museums collections around the world. Through the prism of one garment, multiple ways of looking at dress are considered, including their classification in museums and archives. Also highlighted are associated tattooing (veiqia) practices, perceptions of modesty, the intricacies of intercultural encounters and the significance of collections and cultural heritage today.
The book is intended for those interested in often neglected women's objects and practices in the Pacific, in dress and adornment more generally and in the use of museum collections and archives. It is richly illustrated with rare and previously unpublished paintings and drawings, as well many examples of liku themselves.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Note on Fijian Orthography
Glossary
1. Fibre Skirts, Tattooing and the Museum
2. Liku, Veiqia and the Adorned Body
3. Collecting Liku and Veiqia
Difference: liku, veiqia and early visitors
Domesticity: clothing transformations
Curiosity: colonial bodies
4. Classifying Liku and Veiqia
Liku: lost in translation
Veiqia as museum objects
5. On Separations and Connections
List of Illustrations and Credit Lines
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"