Antoni Judit: Tapa, a fakéreg művészete. Válogatás Ignácz Ferenc gyűjteményéből. (Távoli világok emberközelben I. Gödöllői Városi Múzeum, 2006)

100 m. When it was necessary, they simply cut a piece off for making clothes or for blanket, for example. In addition to clothing and to its role played during ceremonies, tapa also fulfilled such matter-of-fact functions similar to our curtain: they separated with it the different parts of the house from each other; but it could be used also for decorating the wall or the floor; and what is more, it worked well also as mosquito-net. By the coming of the European people, they stopped using tapa for clothes - especially in everyday life. Also, the planted and nursed paper mulberry trees died out or ran wild in many islands, the craftsmanship died out together with the local people in many cases. Since the existence of tapa is inseparably joined with the social customs and expectations in WestPolynesia (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga), it remains in wide usage there up to the present day. In the past, the value of a tapa roll was determined here by its size, especially by its length; and not by its beauty, the excellent quality of its material, or its rich painted decoration. These rolls were used by the villages during exchange festivities held for the sake of maintaining and regularly cultivating good relations and friendship between the tribes; and during the ceremonial commemoration of the events, which were important in the life of the individual or of the community, such as birth, initiation, marriage, committal. Both in Western and in Eastern Polynesia, the native population has early realized the possibilities inherent in industrialized tourism, but there is fundamental difference between East and West in this respect. Namely that in the East the products produced from tapa, the making of which was revived for this purpose, have lost their original function: they have transformed into objects meeting the needs of European usage: into napkins, folders, wall-carpets, etc. In contrast to this, in the West, although these types are present to a certain extent there also, the "objects of value" meant for local utilization continue to be manufactured. MELANESIA: SOLOMON ISLANDS This archipelago is inhabited by ethnic groups having different cultural heritage, speaking more than 60 languages different from each other to smaller or greater extent. They produce tapa from several plant species, the most often from the local variants of banyan (Ficus sp.). All of them provide a reddish brown cloth. Tapa of white colour is also prepared from the bark of another tree species: they tint the ready product to blue with the liquid turned out from the wild indigo. The mode of preparation is similar to the one already described, just the same as their tools: their beaters carved from wood are of round or square cross-section. The tapa was used as clothing; it was primarily the basic material of the loincloth equally worn by men and women alike. The place of origin of the tapa found in the collection is with most probability the Solomon Islands, but only to the extent that the collector has bought them there (in Honiara ?). Otherwise, if we consider the technique of their manufacture and decoration, the set of motifs applied, they might have been prepared in the Fiji Islands, most presumably on Viti Levu, Sigatoka village and have been imported to the Solomon Islands. ADMIRALTY ISLANDS Similarly to the previous set of exhibits, the place of manufacturing of the tapa is dubious in this case also. It is true, they used to prepare and utilize tapa, but their style is not identical with that of the tapa Mr. Ferenc Ignácz believes to originate from there. He makes the following remark in his notes about this object: "... the natives of Manus Island wrap in it" in the tapa "their deceased ones." In the light of ethnological data, specifying of both the origin and utilization is uncertain: it is probable that he has bought it in Manus, but on the basis of its stylistic features it might have been prepared in one of the villages situated along the beach of Collingwood Bay, and it could eventually be worn by the widows during the period of mourning. PAPUA NEW GUINEA As regards its culture, this country shows the most diversified picture in the world with its ethnic groups speaking several hundreds of languages and more or less differing from each other accordingly also in their culture. Albeit the manner of subsistence is basically similar everywhere: garden cultivation, fishing, hunting completed by gathering; there are differences in nearly every other things, and these differences appear also in the case of tapa. There are only a few tapa making ethnic groups and there is very little communication between them.