Shields of Melanesia
By: edited by Harry Beran and Barry Craig ; photography (unless otherwise acknowledged) Cameron Bloom ; drawings, Doug Field
Publisher: Crawford House; In association with Oceanic Art Society
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Adelaide; Sydney
Language: eng
Number of pages: 287
ISBN-13: 9781863331968
Subjects: Shields; Antiquities
Description: Shields of Melanesia is the first comprehensive book of its kind and illustrates more than 100 types of shields from all culture areas of Melanesia that used such objects. Around 80 per cent of the shields illustrated have never before been published. The book also explains why the use of fighting shields in the South Pacific was confined to Melanesia. Adrienne Kaeppler, one of the foremost authorities on the cultures of Micronesia and Polynesia, has contributed a chapter on the protective devices other than shields that were used in those societies, and explains why shields were not used. The typology of war shields used in the book is based on an exhaustive survey of the literature, on the field experiences of the authors, and on a survey of the collections of the major Australian museums.
Notes: Simultaneously published: Honolulu : University of Hawai'i Press, c2005.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-278) and index.