Marquesan Dog

Linguistic

There are two words in the Marquesan language for dog: peto, used in the Northern Marquesas, and nuhe, used in the Southern Marquesas. The former might have been an English loanword from pet or a Spanish loanword from perro (dog), although pero was an alternative for dog (kurī) in the related Māori language. According to another theory supporting its foreign origin, the name came from a New Haven dog named Pato left on Nuku Hiva by the American sea captain Edmund Fanning from 1798 to 1803. The South Marquesan Nuhe is unique in the Polynesian languages, but may have some connection to wanuhe, the word for dog in the Papuan language of the Brumer Islands. French Catholic missionary René-Ildefonse Dordillon listed two other forms: mohoʻio and mohokio in his 1904 dictionary Grammaire et dictionnaire de la langue des iles Marquises.

History

Little is known about the Marquesan Dog. They were introduced to the Marquesan Islands by the original Polynesian settlers along with domesticated chickens, pigs, and the Polynesian rat. The dog is thought to have become extinct prior to the arrival of Spanish explorers in 1595, although some might have survived beyond this point. No European accounts were ever written about them.

They were thought to be fairly rare and 'never numerous in the islands' even before the arrival of Europeans. Unlike in other parts of Polynesia, dogs were not considered an important food source, although they were sometimes eaten as shown by the presence of cut marks on dog bones found in archaeological excavations. Due to their rarity, they were venerated by the Marquesans and were closely associated with the high chiefs and priestly classes. Many petroglyphs or carved images of dogs were found near religious centers and chiefly residential areas indicating their venerated status and importance in the culture.

A survey by American archaeologist Sidsel N. Millerstrom noted that a majority of dog petroglyphs have been found in the valleys of ʻAʻakapa, Haʻatuatua, and Hatiheu on the northern coast of Nuku Hiva, the meʻae Vaikivi on Ua Huka, and the meʻae Iʻipona and Eiaone Valley on Hiva Oa. Their regional distributions possibly reflected the role of dogs as symbols of tribal/clan loyalty and identity in the islands. They were totem animals associated with the Nakiʻi tribe.

Archaeological evidence

German archaeologist Karl von den Steinen was the first European visitor to observe evidence of ancient dogs in the Marquesas in 1897–98. In his excavation of meʻae Iʻipona, a temple complex near the village of Puamaʻu on the northeastern coast of the island of Hiva Oa, he uncovered several stone tiki including two with zoomorphic (animal shaped) quadruped figures carved on them. Measuring 82 cm high, and 90 cm in diameter, the first tiki was a megalithic stone head representing an unknown ʻupoko heʻaka 'sacrificial victim'.

Von den Steinen named it Opferkopf Manuiotaa ('Sacrificial Head Manuiotaa'), after the famous 18th-century Marquesan sculptor Manuiotaʻa from the Nakiʻi tribe, who is believed to have carved both statues and many other tikis on the site. The head bore totem motifs of quadrupeds and little stick figures representing the Marquesans etua (gods) tattooed on each side of its mouth. He was informed that the quadrupeds could depict either dogs, rats or pigs.

However, he concluded they were rats since at the time, dogs were believed to have been introduced by Europeans. He transported the head back to Germany where it is now displayed at the Ethnological Museum of Berlin. The second statue was named Tiki Makiʻi Tauʻa Pepe after Manuiotaʻa's wife, known as Tauʻa Pepe (the 'Butterfly Priestess'); she reportedly died in childbirth with Makiʻi meaning 'writhing in agony'. Images of quadrupeds were carved as bas-reliefs on each side of the square base of this statue.

This tiki remained in its original spot and is visible today at the site of Iʻipona. Only one of the dog carvings is discernible now; the other one has weathered away. In 1956, Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl later claimed the reliefs on Tiki Makiʻi Tauʻa Pepe were llamas or pumas instead to bolster his theory that Polynesia was settled from South America. Later unidentified writers and rumors have insinuated that Heyerdahl deliberately altered and defaced the images in his process of restoring them.

The modern consensus is that the carvings represent the extinct dog; they do not represent llamas, pumas or rats. In 1956, Robert Carl Suggs, with the American Museum of Natural History, led the first stratigraphical excavation of the islands and uncovered many dog bone fragments and one dog burial across a few sites on the island of Nuku Hiva. Between 1964 and 1965, American archaeologist Yosihiko H. Sinoto, with the Bishop Museum, discovered a drilled dog canine used as a pendant, one pre-molar and two dog burials in the sand dunes at Hane on the island of Ua Huka.

In 1998, American archaeologist Barry Vladimir Rolett discovered dog bones in all levels of settlement at Hanamiai, on the island of Tahuata, indicating that the breed may have continued to exist on this island until the mid-19th century. Some of these bones had visible cut marks. In 2000, French archaeologist Pascal Sellier discovered three dog skeletons alongside several human burials at Manihina, Ua Huka; one dog was buried in a coffin.

Reintroduction of dogs

Dogs of different breeds were later reintroduced by European settlers and visitors to the Marquesas. The first European dogs seen were those that accompanied Spanish explorers Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira and Pedro Fernandes de Queirós in 1595. While they were on Hiva Oa, the Marquesans attempted to steal one of the small dogs on their ships. Anthropologist Katharine Luomala noted that nothing suggested that these dogs were left by the Spanish. Possibly the first dogs reintroduced were those left by American ships during the early 1800s in the care of early beachcombers, missionaries and settlers.