Model House

vor 1900

About the object

The model shows a chief‘s house, as it was common on the Marshall Islands until German colonial rule. Chiefs‘ houses had a decoration of black and white braided stripes on the inside. The house rested on four wooden posts, which are not present here. The low floor under the roof served as a bedchamber. When the weather was favourable, the family stayed in the open space below. Mats were hung from the sides to protect against the sun and wind. The floor of the lower room was laid with crushed pieces of coral limestone. This is where manual work took place, such as women weaving mats or men making tools or coconut fiber ropes. People used the opening in the middle to climb up and down. Objects were passed up or thrown down through the small openings on the sides. The collector describes in her notes that this type of house went out of fashion around 1900. Her photographs from the Marshall Islands show that chiefs had taken to building European-style homes instead.

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