There’s something primitive about Tiki Gods. They were born of primitive people who believed that primitive carvings, made out of primitive wood, could protect them from primitive predators.
If you look especially closely, you can actually see the chisel marks in this Tiki God. You can actually see how some man, long ago, in a place far away, took the time to hammer and chisel out an icon he thought would protect him. Protect him from the ravishes of the sea, protect him from the Heavens, protect him from the Earth, or maybe just protect him from his primitive imagination-we’ll never know. All we know is that his protection came in the primitive form of a small wooden icon, erected outside his hut, thought to protect him, thought to be an image of the first man himself.
There’s something elegant too in primitive culture. There’s an elegant sophistication somewhere buried deep in the notion that a hand-carved wooden icon can take all of your troubles away.
Don’t you wish your troubles could go the way of the Tiki Gods? I know, I do.
Until next time…
