Containers of Divinity

In Polynesia, as in many cultural traditions, religion was (and is) the progenitor of important works of art. Made on commission by artists or by religious specialists, the objects become imbued with sacred qualities and aspects of divinity. Such objects/works of art include representations of the gods, decorative and protective garments, special wrappings and containers, and 'relics', such as bones, hair or other physical remains. In Polynesia, many gods derived from mana-bearing people of rank who had become ancestor gods; the figures of these gods and stories about their divinity are widely known. But, just how did objects (which could be considered only representations of the gods), relics, wrappings and containers acquire their 'mana', their power, their sacredness, their divinity? Here I am interested in the special wrappings and containers for divinity, how these added sacredness to the objects they contained, and how divinity became embedded into objects, their wrappings and their containers. I explore these concepts through a discussion of godhouses, from Tahiti and the Tuamotus, as well as of a series of 'sennit' god figures, to'o, and their Polynesian contexts. Looking at these objects as containers of divinity, I explore possible relationships among the containers and the to'o, and what they contained. I also look at the theatricality of the sacred rites that gave the objects divinity in order to reposition these performative arts to centre stage. Along the way I recycle some of the work of an early anthropologist, Kenneth P. Emory, by reviewing some of his comments, as well as the comments of others, about godhouses and to'o. Finally, I re-evaluate and elaborate the comments of these earlier anthropologists and make my own conclusions.