An Easily Accessed Enjoyment in Life - Pottery Ornaments, Handicrafts, and Entertaining Toys

Tags: aborigine | craft | pottery

By observing unearthed pottery from prehistoric sites, we can tell that the existence of pottery signifies human beings started to settle in more fixed places. Knowledge and technology about pottery gradually expanded beyond basic needs and were seen in the form of pottery puppets for kids’ entertainment, pottery sculptures for adornment, pottery wares for ceremony, pottery figurines as burial objects, and esthetic pottery handicrafts. Some Taiwanese aborigines can made pottery ornaments such as pottery beads. The Yami (Tao) people molded clay with their hands into various puppets, which are regarded as characteristic pottery handicrafts and entertaining toys.
 
An Easily Accessed Enjoyment in Life- Collections of Pottery Ornaments, Handicrafts, and Entertaining Toys
人類學主題小組

Former name:clay doll
English name:clay doll
Yami name:taotao
  • Theme and keyword:Tribe:Yami Tribe
  • Description:Application:Yami Pottery Puppets are made for entertainment and pleasure or for sale. Such items were not for practical purposes, but rather for entertainment. Content Description: While firing clay vessels, Yami people would also make clay doll, called “taotao”, for fun. These clay dolls were shaped like people, pigs, sheep, turtles, fish or fishing boats reflecting their daily life. Such dolls were without religious meanings. Since clay dolls are simply for entertainment without practical purposes, they can be called works of art. The styles of these clay dolls are all very simple. No extra decoration is added to the figures. Standing puppets are the most common, but sitting or squatting dolls can also be seen. For example, there are sitting dolls of a mother breast-feeding her baby or squatting dolls of people at fighting or at leisure. Every posture of daily life can be found in Yami clay dolls.
  •  Information identification:Inventory Number:3470


 

  • Theme and keyword:Paiwan Tribe
  • Description:This is a Paiwan necklace. Length: 84cm, weight: 30 g, price:37000 NTD. There are cylindrical green and red grains on the pottery beads.
  • Information identification: Inventory Number:20061230165037859


 

Pottery Beads
  • Theme and keyword:Puyuma Tribe
  • Description:A string of red round beads. Length:88cm; weight:105g; price:27039 NTD
  • Information identification: Inventory Number:20061230165836328


 

Clay Doll
  • Theme and keyword:Yami Tribe
  • Description:Height: 14 cm; width: 7cm; weight: 440 g; price: 10000 NTD. A statue with facial features made of rhombus grains and a necklace made of round grains. It wears a hat for decoration and trousers, with one hand holding an agricultural implement and the other carrying lumber behind the back.
  • Information identification Inventory Number2006123020401578