Exploring the orientation of tiki houseposts in protohistoric Pacific Oceania

The carved anthropomorphic figures of Pacific Oceania are known as tiki. Their place in architecture is the topic of this thesis. Exploring the orientation of tiki houseposts in protohistoric Pacific Oceania presents the written and visual records of Pacific Oceanic explorers, scientific observers and missionaries between 1769 and the 1800s when the introduction of Christianity led to an iconoclasm in Pacific cultures. Surviving tiki figures from that pre-Christian period, reproduced as architectural drawings at 1:1 scale, are investigated for their phenomenological qualities: orientation and identification; size and scale; shape and form; materiality and mobility, to conceptualise their architectural presence and the linking of tiki and architecture in creating the genius loci of a place.