Post #524454 by MadDogMike on Fri, Apr 16, 2010 9:38 PM

Nicholas Thomas. Oceanic Art Thames & Hudson Publishers, 1995. 216 pages, small format paperback, "182 illustrations, 26 in color". This is not a coffee table book with lots of big pictures and little text, but reads more like a text book with small pictures - "A distinctive feature of the canoe is the canoe figureheads. These painted carvings usually bear striking shell inlay in patterns corresponding with ceremonial face painting and shell disks in the ears. One ethnologist reported that the figures figures frightened away sea demons who might otherwise imperil the canoe's occupants, which could conceivably be correct, but possibly only speculation based on assumptions about a magical or animistic 'worldview'..." This is not a bad thing, often images are easy to find but information about the images can be more difficult.