The totokia was intended to peck holes in skulls

Thursday, November 24th, 2022

The Tusken Raiders in the original Star Wars wield a peculiar weapon that Luke calls a gaffi stick. It turns out that the gaderffii is based on the Fijian totokia:

According to Fiji material culture scholar Fergus Clunie who describes it as a beaked battle hammer (in Fijian Weapons and Warfare, 1977: p. 55), “…the totokia was intended to ‘peck’ holes in skulls.” The weight of the head of the club was concentrated in the point of the beak of the weapon or kedi-toki (toki to peck; i toki: a bird’s beak). The totokia “…delivered a deadly blow in an abrupt but vicious stab, not requiring the wide swinging arc demanded by the others.” (Yalo i Viti. A Fiji Museum Catalogue, 1986: p. 185) It was a club that could be used in open warfare or to finish-off or execute warriors on the battlefield.

Totakia and Gaffi Stick

Comments

  1. Pickle Rick says:

    To complete the nerdery, the Tusken Raiders are also armed with a alien version of the North African kabyle or moukahla musket, used by Berbers and the Barbary states for centuries.

  2. Longarch says:

    Okay, the link is not very relevant, but if you love 1970s sci-fi aesthetics, you will probably love the images at this link:

    https://www.djfood.org/fantasy-jodorowsky-tron-visualisations-by-johnny-darrell/

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