The totokia (also pineapple club or beaked battle hammer) is a type of club or battlehammer from Fiji. [1] [2]
The totokia was called the "pineapple club" because of the spiked ball behind the weapon's beak. [3] The name is a misnomer; the shape actually is modeled after that of the fruit of the pandanus . [2] [3]
The spike ("beak") and head of the weapon were used to puncture the skull of the enemy and crush the head. [3] [2] In addition to its functional use as a weapon of war, totokia were also status symbols. [4]
Totokia are held in the collections of several museums, including the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, [5] the Auckland Museum, [6] [7] [8] the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, [9] the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, [4] the Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, [10] the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge, [11] the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, [12] and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. [13]
African and oceanic art expert Bruno Claessens writes that the weapons carried by the Tusken Raiders of Tatooine in George Lucas' Star Wars were inspired by the totokia. [14]
