MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

In the court of public opinion, the ceramic tiki mug is likely to elicit a range of reactions based on the time period in question. A 1940s Los Angeleno might associate the material object with memories of a wild night at the popular Donn the Beachcomber’s establishment, filled with ‘exotic’ sights, sounds, and libations. A citizen of the 1980s might associate the mug with tackiness and tastelessness, or worse yet, might not be able to make any association with the mug at all, owing to tiki’s fall from popularity. But today, the seasoned craft bartender (also known as a ‘mixologist’) will likely see the mug as an opportunity to craft a historic tiki cocktail or an updated remix. The last two decades have seen a spate of new tiki bars open across the United States whose focus is less on kitsch and more on craft, the complicated exotic cocktails and their elaborate vessels serving as demonstrations of one’s virtuosity and knowledge. This project contends that the contemporary tiki revival of the last two decades, which encompasses not only bars and glassware but an entire lifestyle of conventions, clothing, sculpture, and music, owes its popularity to the combination of both the localized, grassroots circulation of information and mass media’s glamorized portrayals of historical drinking culture. This chapter explores material and cultural aspects of the tiki revival, considering the role of media ranging from early internet forums, self-published zines, and small-print books to widely available mass market television shows, films, and magazines. Furthermore, the chapter argues that the rhetoric surrounding contemporary tiki culture, which is distinctly American, displays a selective reclamation of values, eschewing the culture’s historical roots in orientalism in favor of a quasi-anthropological unearthing of historical tiki knowledge, an appraisal of its geographical inaccuracies, and an indulgence in temporal nostalgia.