A fresh look at the many meanings and forms of the club across two centuries of Oceanic culture Featuring more than 150 clubs made in the 18th and 19th centuries from across a vast geographical and cultural span, Power and Prestige explores a fascinating Oceanic object form that has long been misunderstood by Western scholars. From Australia, Polynesia, Melanesia and New Zealand to Hawaii, Easter Island and the Marquesas Islands, carved clubs have played many roles beyond combat in Oceanic cultures. The range in the size of works presented here--from 15 inches to more than six feet, and made in materials ranging from nephrite and wood to whalebone--points to this diversity of utility and form. In this abundantly illustrated volume, essays detail the clubs' use as ritual and religious objects, mediums of exchange, status symbols and more. Other texts break down the specific function clubs performed within each culture, as well as the symbolic meaning of the beautiful images and patterns inscribed on them.

The visual arts of Oceania tell a wealth of dynamic stories about origins, ancestral power, performance, and initiation. This publication explores the deeply rooted connections between Austronesian-speaking peoples, whose ancestral homelands span Island Southeast Asia, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and the island archipelagoes of the northern and eastern Pacific. Unlike previous books, it foregrounds Indigenous perspectives, alongside multidisciplinary research in art history, ethnography, and archaeology, to provide an intimate look at Oceania, its art, and its culture. Stunning new photography highlights more than 130 magnificent objects, ranging from elaborately carved ancestral figures in ceremonial houses, towering slit drums, and dazzling turtle-shell masks to polished whale ivory breastplates. Underscoring the powerful interplay between the ocean and its islands, and the ongoing connection with spiritual and ancestral realms, Oceania: The Shape of Time presents an art-focused approach to life and culture while guiding readers through the artistic achievements of Islanders across millennia.

Includes detailed chapters devoted to each of the five major cultural regions of the Pacific: Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and the islands of Southeast Asia.

Pacific Encounters brings together for the first time many stunning Polynesian objects collected by voyagers and missionaries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Illustrated are over 270 items gathered from the major regions of Polynesia. Many are from the British Museum, which houses fine and rare material from the expeditions of Captain Cook, Captain Vancouver, and members of the London Missionary Society. Ranging from massive images of gods to small fish hooks, they are discussed in the contexts of their local use and meanings, and their journeys to museums all over the world. These pieces have remarkable stories to tell of encounters between humans and their gods, between Polynesians and Europeans, their respective chiefs and priests, beliefs, and technologies. Pacific Encounters is a groundbreaking book that conveys the wonder and excitement not only of the objects themselves, but of the fascinating Polynesian cultures that produced them.

Publication accompanying an exhibition held at the San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, Jan. 31, 2009-Jan. 3, 2010.

Abstracts of papers delivered at the annual meetings of the College Art Association of America.

This lavishly produced voulume is the first reference work to focus on the symbols, meaning, and significance of art in native, or indigenous, cultures.