Post #511518 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Feb 16, 2010 10:17 PM

There are a lot of German ethnology books on the region from before WWII, from the time when Micronesia and part of Melanesia where German colonies.

Here's the areas that were "German" before the Krauts lost WWI and had to give them up:

Swanky just posted an interesting thread about a Florida restaurant:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=35542&forum=2&1

The little menu story fits into this thread:

While it seemingly contradicts my opinion of doubting that war experiences in Melanesia directly inspired Tiki temples, I believe it's not as easy as related in the menu text above. What were those guys doing during the ten years between the end of war, and the blossoming of the Tiki craze? Nobody came home in 1945 and -BAM- opened a Tiki joint.

I believe the Tiki craze happened first, for a variety of reasons ("South Pacific" being one), and then the veterans fit well into the concept. Remember, Don The Beachcomber and Trader Vic were fictional characters, and they inhabited a South Sea storybook-land composed of movie, music and novel cliches. The scripts for these stories made use of whatever fit into their concept, and molded it in, to reflect the public need for the dream of the South Sea island paradise. It is that fantasy quality that makes Poly pop an art form. (Those Germans could have never done it, they would have been too "correct". :) )

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-02-16 22:31 ]