Pacific Encounters : Art & Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860

A handsome book exploring Polynesian objects gathered during the early period of contact with European voyagers, missionaries and settler - the exhibition catalogue for the British Museum Power and Taboo show

Pacific Encounters is the companion book to the British Museum Power and Taboo exhibition. The book brings together for the first time many Polynesian objects gathered during the early period of contact with European voyagers, missionaries and settlers and features over 270 items with short captions, including sculptures in wood and stone, feather and basketry images, feather cloaks, wood bowls, decorated bark cloths, ornaments and valuables of ivory, shell, bone and nephrite.

The objects are drawn from the major regions of Polynesia; the Society Islands (Tahiti), Austral Islands, Cook Islands, Marquesas Islands, Hawaii, Easter Island, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and New Zealand. Illustrated essays focus on the role, meaning and interpretation of Polynesian art and material culture; examine the history of the collection of this material by explorers (most famously Captain Cook), missionaries and traders, and the routes by which it eventually came to museums.

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