Shields of Melanesia [Hardcover]

Harry Beran (Editor), Barry Craig (Editor), Doug Field (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

This is the first comprehensive compilation on the war shields of Melanesia. The volume illustrates more than one hundred types of shields from all culture areas of Melanesia that used such objects. Approximately eighty percent of the shields illustrated in the book have never appeared in print.

The editors describe why the use of fighting shields in the South Pacific was confined to Melanesia. The typology of war shields used in the book is based on an exhaustive survey of the literature, on the field experience of the authors, and on a survey of the collections of the major Australian museums.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Barry Craig is curator of Foreign Ethnology at the South Australian Museum. Harry Beran, recently retired from the University of Wollongong, has written numerous publications on the art of Papua New Guinea.

Contributors: Tod Barlin, Harry Beran, Chris Boylan, Eric Coote, Barry Craig, Tony Crawford, Bill Evans, Tim Flannery, Adrienne Kaeppler, Reg MacDonald, Elizabeth Pryce, Noelle Rathmell-Stiels.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 308 pages
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824827325
• ISBN-13: 978-0824827328
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 8.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #33 in Books > History > Australia & Oceania > New Zealand
  • #38 in Books > History > Australia & Oceania > Australia

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reference Work, January 8, 2006

By 

Telefomin "sentani" (Vienna, Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shields of Melanesia (Hardcover)

A great work about the various shield types of Melanesia. The book deals mostly with mainland New Guinea, but also with surrounding Islands and the Solomons. There are beautiful pictures in color of the shields and old b/w field photographs. It includes also many distribution maps of the different shield types. Until now, this is the first reference book about Melanesian shields, and a must for anybody who is interested in that field. Not only the allready well known regions like Sepik-, Asmat and Highlands of P.N.G. are described, it deals also with lesser known areas like Digul or Waropen.
Barry Craig had long-time field expirience at the Min region (see his other book about that region „Art and Decoration of Central New Guinea". The austrian Harry Beran, is an expert about the Massim Art.
It's a pitty, that the book is not available from the original publisher in australia. He is a specialist for books about Melanesia-New Guinea. Without his enthusiasm, many books about that field, would not have been published.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Striking & Powerful Shields Of Melanesia, May 9, 2007

By 

James I. Cole "grayspur" (High Desert, California) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Shields of Melanesia (Hardcover)

287 Pages, 11.5" x 8.75", Hardback. A simply superb book, lavishly illustrated in full color, beautifully demonstrating the power and magic of the shields of New Guinea and the surrounding islands. Hundreds of full-color items and 14 maps.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive Book on a Little Known Subject, March 9, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Shields of Melanesia (Hardcover)

It is a bit sad that the people living in such an idyllic location as the islands of the South Pacific. But of course there were people there and that means that there was conflict.

Among the many differences in these shields from those commonly seen in European collections is that the South Pacific islands had no iron, no metals of any type. While the Europeans were constantly innovating and improving their weapons, the islanders were still making fighting equipment from organic materials such as animal hide, bark, wood, rattan. That means, among other things that these shelds were made relatively recently when compared with European exhibits.

Surprisingly, although this book is titled Shields of Melanesia, many of the areas of what is now called Melanesia such as Vanuatu and New Caladonia never developed shields at all. This book will represent the definitive work on this class of shields, it is beautifully printed and illustrated.