Marquesan tiki, the refinement of an esthetic The representation of the tiki has undergone a gradual progression  : « when tracing the evolution of tiki, the irst elements that we ind are standing stones, then phallic shaped stones. later they become igures with a phallic-human form, these are the Tahitian tiki, which evolved further culminating in the Marquesan tiki and easter island statues (moai), with a very stylized but very human form. », explains Tara Hiquily, ethnographic collections manager at the Musée de Tahiti et des îles and curator of the Tiki exhibition. The Marquesan tiki is generally anthropomorphic (having a human form), most often with a disproportionately large head, huge circular eyes, a big nose, an exaggeratedly broad mouth stretching across the width of the face, hands resting on the stomach, legs bent against a squat body. Whilst almost always depicted standingupright, a few rare tiki are shown sitting down, and more exceptionally lying down. In some cases, the tiki may be double-headed. Most commonly they represent male igures ; however, female igures are sometimes carved. omnipresent in the Marquesan culture, where its formis most sophisticated, the tiki is a statue or is CULTURE oBJeTS ArCHéoLoGIqueS De GrAnDe VALeur Au MuSée De LA MAIrIe De VAIPAee (uA HukA, MArquISeS). ArChAeologiCAl oBJeCTs iN The MuseuM oF The CiTy hAll oF vAipAee (uA hukA, MArquesAs islANds). an element decorating everyday objects  : pipes, drums, fans, pestles, war clubs, bone beads, ear-pegs or pu taiana, an ear ornament worn by both men and women. Carved from stone, wood, bone or more rarely whale-tooth, Tikis were shaped using stone adzes, shards of stone or even sharks-teeth. Many carved tiki are decorated with motifs that cover the body, the patterns are inspired by weaving, marked with carved bands of repeating geometric shapes, representing tattoos. « There is going to be a gradation of the motif, that starts with the human form, from the tiki, and that becomes the graphic language of the Marquesas that, through the medium of tattooing, has today spread across the world. All originating from the tiki », emphasizes the exhibition’s curator. When the irst european navigators set foot on Marquesan soil, the Spaniard àlvaro de Mendaña and his men, they must have found these imposing statues quite unsettling. However, the development of bartering during the 17 th, 18t h and particularly the 19 th centuries, with the arrival of the english and French, marked a turning point in Polynesian civilization. These statuaries were no longer carved to honor the mana of illustrious ancestors, but rather as an item of monetary value. From 1838 onwards, navigators began bringing tikis back to europe ; these statues appear not to have any sacred signiicance but and were made solely for commercial exchange. P.BaCCHeT 63