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This exhibition presents
art from the contrasting cultural traditions of Melanesia
and Polynesia. Melanesin objects from New Ireland, the
Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu will be familiar to many: those
of the Polynesian outliers will be less so, as they have
seldom been published or exhibited. Although their cultural
orientations are very different, the interactions between
Melanesian and Polynesian peoples through warfare, trade,
cohabitation of islands, intermarriage, and other relations,
have produced interesting combinations of custom and
material culture. Melanesian peoples have inhabited the major islands in
the region for thousands of years, while Polynesian
occupation of the outliers in many cases can be numbered in
centuries. The quest for spiritual power, mana,
linked to material wealth and political influence, was at
the core of the traditional Melanesian society. By contrast,
the people of the Polynesian outliers, like their ancestors
in Polynesia proper, believed in hereditary sources for
mana and prestige. The art object did not add power,
but symbolized or expressed already acknowledged status. The exhibition contains objects collected by European
ethnographers Augustin Krämer and Laos BirÛ;
missionaries of the London-based Melanesian Mission and the
PËres Maristes in France; as well as material from New
England historical collections. A large number of objects
came from the Johnson family museum, collected by family
members on the eight circumnavigations of the Yankee
in the decades immediately before and after World War II.
Any availabe collection history is given as well as the
content of tags or labels, some of the most interesting of
which were written by the young Arthur Johnson. The text includes references to many early accounts by
ethnographers, collectors, and non-specialists as well as
those of more recent scholars in the field. Factors such as
depopulation, religious conversion, two World Wars, and the
resolute march of ìcivilizationî in gereral
have made attributions and identifications challenging.
There remain many unanswered questions about signification,
intention, and even in some cases actual use. Nonetheless, the objects do speak to us if we accord them
the attention and sensitivity which all art deserves. It is
hoped that the information contained in this catalogue may
facilitate new insights among those already familiar with
the cultures represented, as well as encourage those who are
unfamiliar with them to see and learn more. This catalogue is dedicated to the Johnson Family,
especially Mrs. Electa Johnson and her sons Arthur and
Robert, whose spirit and appreciation for the variety of the
human experience contiinues to inspire all who know them. I
would like to thank Jesse Taggert, Vernon Doucette, and
especially Lara Greenwood, without whose dedication,
insight, and unflagging enthusiasm this project could not
have been realized. --Norman Hurst |
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