Totokia from the collection at the Bedford MuseumFijian warrior holding a totokia
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]
^ a b cRon Ewins, "The Perils of Ethnographic Provenance: The Documentation of the Johnson Fiji Collection in the South Australian Museum" in Hunting the Collectors: Pacific Collections in Australian Museums (eds. Susan Cochrane & Max Quanchi: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007), p. 62.