OCEANIC ARTS

the literary, performing, and visual arts of the islands of the Pacific, including Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia and the island continent of Australia. Many of the islands are separated by vast stretches of ocean, and the resulting isolation, together with the wide range of environmental conditions, has led to the development of a rich variety of artistic styles. The largest island in Melanesia, and the second largest island in the world, is New Guinea. New Guinea lies north of Australia and is on the western edge of Oceania. It is divided into the independent country of Papua New Guinea on the east and the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya on the west. Northeast and east of New Guinea lies the arc of islands that constitutes the rest of Melanesia. Included in this group are the Admiralty Islands, New Britain, and New Ireland (all in the Bismarck Archipelago and administratively part of Papua New Guinea), the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides), New Caledonia, and Fiji. The small islands of Micronesia lie north of Melanesia and form a parallel arc that extends from Palau (Belau) and the Mariana Islands in the northwest through the Caroline and the Marshall islands to Kiribati (formerly the Gilbert Islands) in the southeast. East of both Melanesia and Micronesia is Polynesia, a vast triangular area formed by New Zealand in the southwest, Easter Island in the southeast, and Hawaii in the north. Within this triangle lie, roughly from west to east, Fiji (which serves as a transitional territory between Melanesia and Polynesia), Tuvalu (formerly the Ellice Islands), Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands, and French Polynesia (including the Society, the Austral , and the Marquesas [Marquises] islands). The variety of Oceania's cultures has always been a matter for wonder. A small number of people, no more than three to four million at the time of first contact with Westerners, practiced a wide range of economies based largely on the ecological niches in which they lived. In the broad expanses of Australia, the tribal communities lived largely as hunting-and-gathering nomads. In New Guinea they ranged from nomadism to large-scale horticulture, with some coastal groups dependent mainly on fishing. The other Melanesian islanders were predominantly horticulturalists. With certain exceptions, Melanesian societies were acephalous, with men of energy and ambition competing for status that lasted only for their lifetimes. Polynesian and Micronesian societies, on the other hand, were hierarchical; in the most formalized, dynastic rulers, of reputedly divine descent, dominated several lower classes, the most inferior being prisoners and slaves. Religion was everywhere a paramount concern, and throughout Oceania the supernatural and the activities associated with it were the inspiration for the greater achievements of the arts. These were not limited to the dances, chants, figures, masks, and architectural sculptures connected with actual ritual; so pervasive was belief that it infused with symbolism the creation of what might seem mundane and secular objects. In Australia and Melanesia, male domination of women largely excluded the latter from religious cults and thus from many types of artistic endeavour. In fact, in much of Melanesia, religion and art centred on segregated male meetinghouses, dance grounds, secret societies, and initiation ceremonies. In Polynesia and eastern Micronesia, however, religious ceremonies were often held at open-air sacred enclosures. Thus, although architecture was well-developed, only a few areas had buildings as artistically significant as the men's houses in Melanesia. But, whatever the type, almost every example of art produced in Oceania, whether for ritual or functional use, reflects its creator's sense of the spiritual world. This article discusses the visual art, music, dance, and literature of the traditional peoples of Oceania. Although it includes the effects of Western colonization and the adaptation of traditional forms to modern technology, it does not treat the postcolonial adoption of wholly Western styles and forms. The literatures of Australia and New Zealand, for example, are derived from and strongly influenced by the English literary tradition; they are therefore discussed separately in the articles Australian literature and New Zealand literature. Information on the geographic, economic, and historical background of Oceanic arts can be found in the article Pacific Islands. the literary, performing, and visual arts of the islands of the Pacific, including Australia, Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. Many of these island clusters are separated by vast stretches of ocean; and the resultant isolation, together with the wide range of environmental conditions present, has led to the development of a rich variety of artistic styles. A tentative postulate of Indonesian affinities with Oceania has been based on the penetration of Melanesia about 2000 BC by a maritime cum agricultural people identified by Lapita pottery, which is stylistically similar to early Moluccan ceramics. These people settled farther east on Tonga and Samoa, where a millennium of isolation bred a distinct Polynesian culture. When Samoan seafarers arrived on Marquesas, it became the dispersal centre for Polynesian culture. By the end of the 1st millennium AD, the culture area embraced New Zealand, but the Marquesan settlers, who had lost many plants and animals en route, were forced by an alien climate and land to abandon cultivation and take up hunting. The break was complete by AD 1400, and the warrior bands typical of New Zealand ventured inland in search of game. Australian Aborigines have retained a similar mode of life in sharp contrast to the agricultural subsistence prevalent among most Oceanic islanders. Divergent cultural developments were the inevitable by-product of centuries of demographic isolation; Oceania is little more than a name of geographic convenience. The baffling array of discrete culture groups is paralleled by great linguistic diversity. It is difficult to establish any constant Oceanic features or patterns of behaviour and belief that have a universal distribution. It is hardly surprising that the artistic traditions of Oceania should be extensively variedeven at a local level. Intercultural exchange is not unknown, but borrowed artifacts invariably gain new functions and value in their new setting. New aesthetic elements are absorbed and diffused with such rapidity that any scheme of distribution of themes and techniques would be subject to constant review. Nevertheless, some symbols do appear to have supralocal significance; the bird is a universal motif symbolizing virility and power. Indigenous traits are sometimes discarded and then resumed at will. Fruitful study of Oceanic arts is hampered by paucity of research materials. European domination was only one factor accounting for this. In Polynesia in particular, drastic cultural change from the 1850s onward resulted in the present-day predominance of Western cultural traits on a far greater scale than the nominal suzerainty of the church. Traditional music has been usurped by the secular styles of the West. The Hawaiian ukulele is an adaptation of the Portuguese bragha and is quite unsuited to indigenous musical forms. Editing and translation have perverted the oral traditions, and it is virtually impossible to reconstruct pre-19th-century representational art, much of which was fragile and made of perishable materials, since those objects that were not ritually destroyed as a matter of course were burnt by Christian converts; what little does remain was saved by missionaries. The arts of Oceania are often called primitive, which is accurate and nonpejorative in that the region as a whole knows only rudimentary forms of writing and its peoples are technologically unsophisticated. Yet the mythological and cosmogonic systems underlying the arts are often highly complex. Religion and ritual strongly influence every aspect of Oceanic life, and their association with the arts is especially close. Religious symbolism infuses not only the objects, dances, and speeches used in ritual but also the materials and tools used to create them. The individual who creates or commissions a work is similarly esteemed, and the craftsman's skillwhether applied to ritual or to secular, utilitarian worksis highly valued. Craftsmanship, in fact, is the main criterion by which a work is judged. Art, moreover, is produced for particular functions: reinforcing social ranking or political influence; propitiating gods, spirits, and ancestors; encouraging good harvests or successful hunting trips; and celebrating important community events. Oceanic literature includes both complex oral traditions and a more modern body of works written primarily in English. The traditional oral transmission of literature necessitated rhythmic cadences and stock formulas to aid memory. Favoured subjects are tales of the gods and spirits and creation myths. Nature and place-names provide a multitude of images that are highly confusing to the outsider but possess identifiable symbolism for the island peoples, who can easily spot the social, political, religious, and even erotic meanings intended. Some public recitations are fixed according to rigid formulas and are therefore suitable for dance accompaniment. Political and ceremonial speeches are handed down as rough frameworks, allowing a degree of leeway for the inserting of original material. Polynesian and Micronesian literature contains the legendary cycles of mythological figures who have general and local symbolism. Such a character is the trickster Mani-tiki-tiki, a fisherman who discovered fire but also a fertility god in various local contexts. Musical styles are multitudinous, though all regions, with some Melanesian exceptions, emphasize vocals using instruments to produce supranormal voices. Consequently most instruments are technically crude though often elaborately decorated in keeping with their extramusical function as gifts and cult objects. Orchestras such as the Solomon Islanders' panpipes ensembles generally accompany song and dance. Polynesian song and dance is rooted in societal structure, and chants praise chiefs or high-ranking guests while the dancers' movements narrate rather than act out the meaning. Women's dancing is intrinsically similar but assessed according to its gracefulness rather than interpretive force. In Melanesia the art of tattooing arose with the dance. Australian and Melanesian dance has a historical function describing the activities of gods and ancestorsin the latter instance, dancers don elaborate costumes and masks. The big man is at the apex of Melanesian society, and sponsorship of huge ceremonies is one of the ways in which he maintains his position by displaying his wealth. The competitive element ensures more inventive and dynamic performances than those achieved in hierarchial chiefdom societies. In all the islands the significant movements are made with the upper half of the body while the feet merely keep time. The visual arts display ingenious use of environmental possibilities: a staggering range of materials are used, often in collage-style combination. The common predeliction for the symbolic ordering of nature does not, of course, result in similarities of style, and this is equally true of the manufacture and decoration of artifacts. Identical materials are fashioned into hugely different objects, while common motifs are often scarcely recognizable from one society to another. Monumental sculptures in stone and wood are found alongside relief panels of astounding delicacy; the extraordinary versatility of local craftsmen can be seen in the Hanai wickerwork of New Zealand, in which both masks and cloaks are fashioned. Given the basic nature of their tools, the New Zealanders reveal great skill and manual dexterity. Similarly, the delicacy of the decorative arts of Marquesas suggests a long and fruitful tradition of craftsmanship. It is possible that islanders were aware of a number of technological advances that they deliberately eschewed, presumably as unsuitable to their environment. This may well be the case with metallurgy, if the swift utilization of iron after its introduction in the 18th century can rightly be interpreted as reflecting previous experience. That the islanders took full advantage of all the mediums of artistic creation available to them is best illustrated in the great effort required to shape the Easter Island figures from the local volcanic tufa. Additional reading General works General characteristics of Oceanic civilizations, with analyses of culture and religion as the root of the arts, are explored in Peter Bellwood, Man's Conquest of the Pacific: The Prehistory of Southeast Asia and Oceania (1978); and Douglas L. Oliver, Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands, 2 vol. (1989). Visual arts Well-illustrated studies of the region as a whole include Jean Guiart, The Arts of the South Pacific, trans. from French (1963); Alfred Buehler, Terence Barrow, and Charles P. Mountford, The Art of the South Sea Islands: Including Australia and New Zealand, rev. ed. (1968); Carl A. Schmitz, Oceanic Art: Myth, Man, and Image in the South Seas, trans. from German (1969); Sidney M. Mead (ed.), Exploring the Visual Art of Oceania: Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia (1979); George A. Corbin, Native Arts of North America, Africa, and the South Pacific (1988), a general introduction to aboriginal art; and Peter Gathercole, Adrienne L. Kaeppler, and Douglas Newton, The Art of the Pacific Islands (1979).The Aboriginal art of Australia is examined in Dacre Stubbs, Prehistoric Art of Australia (1974); Robert Hughes, The Art of Australia, rev. ed. (1970); and Ronald M. Berndt and E.S. Phillips (eds.), The Australian Aboriginal Heritage: An Introduction Through the Arts, 2nd ed. (1978). For a survey of Melanesian art, see Waldemar Sthr, Kunst und Kultur aus der Sdsee: Sammlung Clausmeyer Melanesien (1987); and Douglas Newton, New Guinea Art in the Collection of the Museum of Primitive Art (1967). On Polynesia as a whole, see Edward Dodd, A Pictorial Peregrination Through the Shapely and Harmonious, Often Enigmatical, Sometimes Shocking Realms of Polynesian Art (1967; also published as Polynesian Art, 1969); Allen Wardwell, The Sculpture of Polynesia (1967); and Terence Barrow, Art and Life in Polynesia (1972). Smaller areas are discussed in J. Halley Cox and William H. Davenport, Hawaiian Sculpture, rev. ed. (1988); Terence Barrow, The Art of Tahiti and the Neighbouring Society, Austral, and Cook Islands (1979); and Sidney M. Mead (ed.), Te Maori: Maori Art from New Zealand Collections (1984). On Micronesia, see Jerome Feldman and Donald H. Rubinstein, The Art of Micronesia (1986), a brief catalog with informative essays and a bibliography. Douglas Newton Music and dance A general introduction is found in William P. Malm, Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East, and Asia, 2nd ed. (1977). Hans Fischer, Sound-Producing Instruments in Oceania: Construction and Playing Technique, Distribution and Function, rev. ed. (1986; originally published in German, 1958), provides a comprehensive study of the subject. For Melanesian music, see Hugo Zemp, rere Classification of Musical Types and Instruments and Aspects of rere Musical Theory, two original studies of music, musical instruments, and concepts in a Solomon Islands culture, both in Ethnomusicology, 22:3767 (January 1978) and 23:548 (January 1979), respectively; Jaap Kunst, Music in New Guinea, trans. from Dutch (1967), covering western New Guinea; and Steven Feld, Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression (1982), a penetrating study of the symbolic and emotional dimensions of music in a small-scale culture of Papua New Guinea. For Polynesia, see Adrienne L. Kaeppler, Polynesian Dance: With a Selection for Contemporary Performances (1983), a description of dances and songs from several island areas; Johannes C. Andersen, Maori Music, with Its Polynesian Background (1934, reprinted 1978), covering Polynesia in general with an emphasis on New Zealand; E.G. Burrows, Native Music of the Tuamotus (1933, reprinted 1971), a study of Tuamotu chant in its cultural context, and Songs of Uvea and Futuna (1945, reprinted 1971), examining two small western Polynesian islands; Jane Mink Rossen, Songs of Bellona Island, 2 vol. (1987), a description of musical categories and styles of a Polynesian population in the Solomon Islands; E.S. Craighill Handy and Jane Lathrop Winne, Music in the Marquesas Islands (1925, reprinted 1971); Helen H. Roberts, Ancient Hawaiian Music (1926, reprinted 1971); and Jane Freeman Moulin, The Dance of Tahiti (1979), a detailed analysis. Micronesian dance is described in a short study, Mary Browning, Micronesian Heritage (1970). Dieter Christensen Adrienne L. Kaeppler Literature A general survey of literature is provided in Norman Simms, Silence and Invisibility: A Study of the Literature of the Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand (1986). Emerging literatures are further analyzed in H.H. Anniah Gowda (ed.), Essays in S. Pacific Literature (1977); Subramani, South Pacific Literature: From Myth to Fabulation (1985); and Subramani (ed.), The Indo-Fijian Experience (1979), an anthology with the editor's descriptive introduction. Other useful anthologies with commentary include Johannes C. Andersen, Myth & Legends of the Polynesians (1928, reprinted 1986); Albert Wendt (ed.), Lali: A Pacific Anthology (1980); Ulli Beier (ed.), Black Writing from New Guinea (1973), and Voices of Independence: New Black Writing from Papua New Guinea (1980); Bernard Gadd (ed.), Pacific Voices: An Anthology of Writing by and About Pacific People (1977); and Mana (semiannual). Subramani Literature The role of the author Creativity in many parts of the Pacific is perceived in terms of mana, a word of Pacific origin that is commonly used in Melanesian and Polynesian languages to express the power or force that is concentrated in objects or persons. This includes creative energy, which emanates from supernatural sources. Even though creativity has divine origins, mana is never exclusively the possession of supernatural beings. It is available to chiefs because of their closeness to supernatural powers, and ordinary people can also increase their creativity by performing appropriate rituals or by studying and acquiring skills. Outstanding creative individuals have mana in greater abundance than ordinary individuals, but every individual has the potential for some form of creativity. Each individual may express his creativity in different ways, however, and three broad categories of literary artists can be described. In Polynesia the traditional artist was the priest-poet, who served both as a priest or magician and as an entertainer. The priest-poets were in the employment of chiefs and had well-defined functions. They sometimes formed a distinct hereditary caste; in other cases they were drawn from chiefly clans and were occasionally even high chiefs themselves. The priest-poets became obsolete as the traditional chiefdoms gave way to Western colonization and nationhood, but in most parts of the Pacific there are still what has been called freelance, or unattached, practitioners. These include wandering poets and minstrels who, unlike the priest-poets, do not go through any formal rigid training and do not claim to have special mana. They learn their trade by listening to other artists. Sometimes their function is socially recognized and they receive payment for their performances. As in most cultures, there are also amateur artists, including occasional versifiers, choral singers, and individuals such as grandmothers who tell stories and thus contribute to oral literature. This classification of artists as professional, freelance, or amateur emphasizes the significance of individual talent in both oral and written literature. Because the names of individual composers or poets do not feature prominently in oral literature, this circumstance has led to the popular belief that oral literature is communally created. There are, of course, instances of communal or group involvement in the creation of certain kinds of oral literature; at the centre of all creative activity, however, is a chief composer who bears ultimate responsibility for the creation. In Return to the Islands (1957), Sir Arthur Grimble vividly relates how oral poems were composed in Kiribati. He describes the first stirring of poetry as a divine spark of inspiration, which gives the poet his mana. This mana, in turn, causes the poet to remove himself from society into his house of song,' wherein he will sit in travail with a poem that is yet unborn. After the poem is formed in the poet's mind, he calls together some of his close friends and recites the rough draft of his poem. Grimble observes, It is the business of his friends to interrupt, criticise, interject suggestions, applaud, or howl down, according to their taste. Very often, they do howl him down, too, for they are themselves poets. On the other hand, if the poem, in their opinion, shows beauty, they are indefatigable in abetting its perfection. . . . When all their wit and wisdom has been poured out upon him, they depart. He remains alone againprobably for several daysto reflect upon their advice, accept, reject, accommodate, improve, as his genius dictates. Although the author of a written work is easier to identify and recognize, the role of such writers in Oceania is more difficult to define. Written literature depends greatly on readership, and in much of Oceania the writer's language (usually English) and major genres (e.g., novel, short story) are nonindigenous to the region. Consequently, written literature from the Pacific is better known internationally than in Oceania itself. The level of literacy in Englishespecially in Papua New Guinea, where about 700 traditional languages are spokenis not high. Interest in local literatures is generally confined to the emerging educated elite in the urban centres. For the majority of people throughout Oceania, traditional oral literatures, such as storytelling and dance and musical performances, still satisfy their aesthetic needs. Subramani Oral traditions Understanding of the content of Oceanic oral literature is limited. Nevertheless, a few general comments about traditional forms, types, and themes can be made. First, because the purpose of literature is to communicate, it demands an audience. In the case of an oral literature, communication depends first on memory, and this usually means that such memory aids as rhythm and stock formulas and phrases are an important element of all texts. The majority of Oceanic texts keep closely to traditional forms and appear to be committed to memory and then are communicated in a strictly unvarying manner. This is, however, only approximately the case, because the various techniques of formalization can allow for a rather fluid text. The tradition can be made evident at the lexical level, with the possibility of a great freedom of syntax. It only prevents prosodic elements from taking on primary importance. The literary occasions of the Oceanian peoples are, as in other cultures, reflected in sacred literature, political literature, and frivolouseven erotictexts. This division, however, should not be taken to represent an attempt at classification; any such pigeonholing would be inconvenient indeed, because such a large number of texts defy neatness and straddle two categories. But there are certainly two poles between which the various forms of literary expression can be placed. On the one hand, there is a body of works that appeals to Western readers and is made accessible to them by its use of the poetic image. On the other hand, there are many texts, often brief, in which each word is frequently a complete image. This kind of text is part and parcel of the culture that has produced it and requires a veritable arsenal of commentaries of others to interpret the key words and to unravel its significance to nonnative readers. Texts are, basically, of two kinds: (1) recitatives, whose form is rigid; they can be expanded but not transformed; in this category belong all the songs or chants that accompany dances (whether the performers be standing or seated), funeral chants, songs that accompany children's games, and those with an erotic significance; and (2) public orations, in which the elements are formally but roughly organized, giving the speaker the right to vary the presentation within certain limits established for this literary genre. Such discourses, which can aptly be delivered as a high-level political oration and as a funeral eulogy or remembrance speech, can also, in a more simple form, commemorate such events as a birth or a marriage. Oceanic themes are those that appear in other literatures of the world: love and death, defiance and hatred, nostalgia for the past, and the pleasure of the moment. Nature provides the necessary images. There is, nevertheless, a barrier between Oceanic literature and that of other cultures. Although it presents a familiar mental universe, it does so in what is often an allusive manner that demands an intimate knowledge of local place-names, local political geography, and land division before its meaning can be understood: the owl, for example, is symbolic of a given place, the lizard of some other, and the sea eagle associated with a third. Music and dance The role of music and dance Music and dance in Polynesia and Micronesia are audible and visual extensions of poetry, whereas in Melanesia they are aimed more at spectacular display during times of life crises and as a part of secret-society rituals. The differences between Melanesian and Polynesian-Micronesian music and dance reflect more basic differences between the Big Man sociopolitical structure found in many parts of Melanesia and the dynastic chiefdoms of Polynesia and Micronesia. Melanesia The leader, or Big Man, in many Melanesian societies is often a self-made man; he becomes a leader by creating followers, succeeding because he possesses skills that command respect in his society, such as oratory, bravery, gardening prowess, and magical powers. He amasses goods and has great public giveaways, often in connection with the erection of a Big Man's dwelling or a men's house, the purchase of higher grades of rank in secret societies, the sponsorship of funeral or other religious ceremonies, or the installation and consecration of slit gongs (or slit-drums, percussion instruments made from hollowed-out logs or living tree trunks). These ceremonies occasion spectacular performances of music and dance as well as extraordinary displays of visual art. There are basically two kinds of dance in these Melanesian ceremonies: dances of impersonation and dances of participation. In the first type, the dancer impersonates mythical or ancestral beings; the dance-actor becomes someone else, and his attire is usually distinctly unhuman or supernaturalconsisting often of huge masks and a full otherworldly costume. The dance movements are dictated by the two considerations that the impersonated beings are not human and that the dancer's attire is difficult to move in. Thus, the movements are those of legs and swaying bodies; the arms are often covered and frequently used to steady the costume and mask or perhaps hold a drum to accompany the dance. The movements do not interpret recited poetry; however, the accompanying sounds of musical instruments may represent the voices of the supernatural beings. The dances of participation are often extensions of these dramatic ceremonies, for individuals who do not impersonate spirits often join in and dance with them, imitating the steps of the supernatural. In dances celebrating head-hunting, warfare, funeral rites, or fertilityin which the entire community sometimes participatesthe same movements are used, often to the accompaniment of drumming and communal singing. The dances have a character of spontaneity and do not require long and arduous training. Their aim is not the simultaneous flawless execution of music and intricate movements but, rather, the creation of a mass rhythmic environment that might be characterized as a visual extension of rhythm. If words are associated, they are repetitious and seem not to tell a story; they may even be unintelligible. Although the specific structure of any single dance tradition in Melanesia is not yet known, it seems probable that the isolated units of movement would be primarily those of legs and body. Visual arts Melanesian visual art The Torres Strait The small islands of the Torres Strait, between northern Australia and southern Papua New Guinea, were inhabited by groups of people who, generally speaking, shared a common basic culture. Religious life revolved largely around male initiation cults of various creative and peregrinatory heroes, fertility cults, and funerary ceremonies. Stage settings and decorated masks were used for all of these rites. The settings were typically screens before which dancers appeared in reenactments of myths. On the southern islands the chief material of major works of art was tortoiseshell, which was perhaps nowhere else in the world used on a comparable scale for masks and effigies. The tradition was evidently an old one, having been observed by the Spanish explorers Torres and Prado in 1606. The masks and effigies were built up of small plates of shell lashed together. Masks were painted red, with white details; some sparse decorative engraved detail was filled in with white, and carved wooden accessories, seed rattles, and feathers were added. The masks are of three types. Two, used for the hero cults, were to be worn horizontally on the top of the head and represent fish or combinations of creatures, such as the head of a crocodile or hawk with a fish's tail. Sometimes a subsidiary human face was added on top of the head. The masks for funerary ceremonies were more naturalistic with somewhat elongated faces and slightly elongated earlobes, embellished with wigs and beards of human hair. On the western islands, large shield-shaped human masks may have been worn and were certainly employed as shrines with trophy skulls attached to them. Large effigies of human beings, crocodiles, and sharkssome as large as life-sizewere constructed for initiations and kept in sacred fenced enclosures. Only on Saibai Island, off the southern New Guinea coast, were masks consistently carved in wood. They are extremely elongated, with long pierced ears and crescent-shaped, toothed mouths, and were worn in harvest times. Wood sculpture was otherwise restricted to representations of human heads, which were attached to canoe prows, and to small figures of humans, turtles, dugongs (sea cows), and other animals used for sexual and fertility magic. Magic for rainmaking involved small stone figures. New Guinea The visual arts of New Guinea are rich and highly complex. Fortunately, the great number of styles that exist can in many cases be subsumed into larger groupings corresponding to geographic areas. Moving clockwise from the extreme northwest of the island, the primary style areas are Geelvink Bay; Humboldt Bay (Teluk Yos Sudarso) and Lake Sentani; the prolific Sepik River region, which is subdivided into numerous smaller groups; Astrolabe Bay; the Huon Gulf; the Massim area; the Gulf of Papua; Fly River; the Marind-anim region; and the southwestern coast. The central Highland ranges of the island also constitute a major style area. Visual arts Australian visual art The art styles of the Australian Aborigines fall into three groups, which follow to some extent the ecological zones of the continent. The first group is identified with the heart of Australia; this region, which covers most of the continent's landmass, is arid desert surrounded by a belt of savanna. The second zone extends from the central desert region to the southeastern coast and includes sections of open eucalyptus forest and belts of tropical jungle. The third zone is similar to the southeastern zone, but it extends to the northeastern and northern coasts (including Arnhem Land and Cape York). It is thought that, at the time of European contact, the Aboriginal population (about 300,000 people) roughly corresponded with these divisions, the north-northeast region having the greatest numbers and the desert the least. The material culture of all three groups was limited in types of objects but versatile and highly efficient in its adaptation to the peoples' hunting-and-gathering economy. All material objects were necessarily portable and often served more than one purpose. For example, wooden bowls were used as both food carriers and cradles; and boomerangs, which were used primarily for fighting and hunting, could also be used, in conjunction with shields, to make fires. The most consistently decorated objects were shields, spears, spear-throwers, clubs, and boomerangs of various forms. The central desert The art of the central desert area features arrangements of primarily curvilinear and rectilinear designs engraved on flat surfaces. Stylized depictions of birds, snakes, and human figures occur infrequently. Paint was used sparingly and was usually restricted to red and white. Curvilinear designs mostly appeared in the eastern and central parts of the area in the form of concentric circles, arcs, semi-ovals, and wavelike patterns. Probably the most striking examples are found on the engraved churingas of the Aranda tribe. These oval or disk-shaped sacred boards were made of wood or stone and painted with red ochre. Each design element refers to a specific object or situation; but the application of the reference in its context of the general design, and its relation to myth, is known only to its clan proprietors. It is this relationship that is revealed, in whole or in part, at initiation rituals. The most elaborate design creations in the central desert area were the settings devised for totemic rituals. The ground was painted with large designs featuring the characteristic circles and serpents, in red or black on an ochre field with white dots. Arrangements of decorated poles and symbolic structures completed the settings. The participants had their bodies painted and then were covered with bird down adhered with the wearer's blood. In the northern central desert, headpieces, worn transversely or vertically, were constructed of spears sheathed in red and white bird down and represented totemic fauna and flora. In the south and the west, the totemic emblems were smaller panels of string and down worked on stick frames. Objects made for daily rather than ritual use, such as spear-throwers and boomerangs, were typically engraved. The engraved designs are characteristically curvilinear in the central area, but the engraving of the west and northwest tends to consist of angular grooved key or diamond patterns against a background of parallel grooves (which were sometimes painted alternately red and white). Similar key patterns were engraved onto mother-of-pearl shells by tribes living along the coastal waters of the northwest. Highly prized as ornaments, the shells were traded far into the interior. Visual arts Polynesian visual art By comparison with the art of Melanesia, Polynesian art appears modest in scale and relatively simple in both form and imagery. This is a somewhat deceptive impression, however; the rapid adoption of Christianity in Polynesia led to the obsolescence and destruction of many types of objects now known only through the records of early explorers. The conception of Polynesian art that is gained from extant objects is therefore incomplete and must be corrected and amplified through the study of early writings and drawings. These make it clear that large-scale works were common and that Polynesian imagery was at times as dynamic and creative as Melanesian. Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa Ethnogeographically, Fiji is usually considered to be the easternmost island group of Melanesia. As a result of trade links and direct migration in both prehistoric and historic times, however, it has much in common culturally and socially with its Polynesian neighbours to the east, Samoa and Tonga. In fact, the arts of these three island groups can be discussed together. The endemic nature of warfare in Fiji led to the production of great numbers of wooden clubs, which were the principal weapons. At least 10 types of clubs were made, each with several subtypes. Considerable care was lavished on the engraved designs that decorated the clubs; sometimes the designs were even inlaid with whale ivory, probably by Tongan craftsmen. Fewer types of clubs were made in Tonga, but they were often completely covered in fine geometric patterning interspersed with tiny silhouettes of human or animal figures. Samoa shared a few club types with Fiji but is more notable for its wooden spears, which have graceful, elaborate barbs. Tapa cloth was made in vast quantities and in lengths up to hundreds of yards. It was generally left plain white for daily use and decorated for special occasions. But in Fiji black, brown, and reddish dyes derived from various barks were used to decorate even everyday cloth with bold, dense geometric designs. Several techniques were used; stenciling was the most prevalent in Fiji, but freehand drawing, rubbing, and block printing were also practiced. In historic times, pottery was made only in Fiji. Bowls carved out of wood usually had four legs in Fiji but a dozen or so in Samoa. Fijian bowls, in particular, show considerable variety of form. Large food bowls were often in the form of turtles. Small, shallow, footed dishes used by priests were usually shaped like hearts, crescents, or abstract forms, but a few resemble canoes or highly stylized humans or flying ducks. Carved ivory ornaments. (Top) Breastplate, ivory, sennit. From Fiji. (Bottom) Necklace with Surviving examples of figure sculpture from all three island groups are extremely rare, and all known examples are small in size. Wooden deity figures from Tonga generally have a stocky torso, which is set well forward of protruding buttocks and short sturdy legs. The arms are stiff and straight. The head is disproportionally large; the face is flat, with the features barely indicated. The whole surface is smooth. The Tongans also carved small female figures in whale ivory; the earliest examples known are tiny, indicating a sparing use of rare material. Some small examples were strung in groups as necklaces. Later pieces, probably carved after whaling made ivory more common, are somewhat larger (see photograph). A few double figures were made as suspension hooks, and some were exported to Fiji. Wooden figures from Fiji and Samoa are in much the same style, but they are less clearly defined in form.