This 1939 text examines whether the formation of a cohesive ethnology of Polynesia could be possible.

Complementing Ethnomusicology: An Introduction, this volume of studies, written by world-acknowledged authorities, places the subject of ethnomusicology in historical and geographical perspective. Part I deals with the intellectual trends that contributed to the birth of the discipline in the period before World War II. Organized by national schools of scholarship, the influence of 19th-century anthropological theories on the new field of "comparative musicology" is described. In the second half of the book, regional experts provide detailed reviews by geographical areas of the current state of ethnomusicological research.

This ground-breaking bibliography by distinguished Pacific researcher Nicholas Goetzfridt examines mathematical concepts and practices in Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. It covers number systems, counting, measuring, classifying, spatial relationships, symmetry, geometry, and other aspects of ethnomathematics in relation to a wide range of activities such as trade, education, navigation, construction, rituals and festivals, divination, weaving, tattooing, and music. In compiling nearly five hundred citations, Goetzfridt makes use of the vast resources of writing about the Pacific from the 1700s to the present. In addition to discussing Pacific knowledge systems in general, his introductory chapter includes a helpful overview of the relatively new field of ethnomathematics and important theoretical reflections on the discipline as a research program. Extensive subject and geographic indexes provide numerous ways to experience the rich heritage and history of Pacific ethnomathematical concepts covered in this book, including: the 256 possible knotted fates enabled by the Carolinian sky god Supwunumen, etak segmentation concepts in stellar based voyaging, the highly diverse counting systems of Papua New Guinea, the alignment of stone structures with stars to mark the appearance of the equinox and solstice, and contemporary educational issues in the standardized teaching of Western mathematics.