Regional timeline · Works comparison · Key concepts · Exam traps
| # | Work | Date | Medium | Region | Key Concept |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Nan Madol | ca. 700–1200 CE | Basalt & coral | Micronesia | Artificial island; chiefly power; log-stack construction |
| 02 | Moai on Ahu | ca. 1100–1600 CE | Tuff volcanic stone | Polynesia (Rapa Nui) | Deified ancestors; face inland; pukao topknot = rank |
| 03 | Female Deity | ca. 1800–1900 | Carved wood | Micronesia (Nukuoro) | Reductive form; akua deity; men's house use |
| 04 | Buk (Mask) | ca. 1885 | Turtle shell, feathers | Torres Strait | Worn horizontally; ancestor turtle spirit; male initiation |
| 05 | Malagan Display | 20th c. | Wood, pigment | Melanesia (New Ireland) | Mortuary ceremony; openwork; destroyed after use |
| 06 | Navigation Chart (Rebbelib) | 19th c. | Palm fiber, shells | Micronesia (Marshall Is.) | Encodes swell patterns; mnemonic, not map |
| 07 | Hiapo (Tapa) | ca. 1850–1900 | Bark cloth, pigment | Polynesia (Niue) | European quilt influence; gifting ceremonies |
| 08 | Staff God (To'o) | early 19th c. | Wood, fiber, feathers | Polynesia (Cook Islands) | Wrapped binding = divine power; Tangaroa |
| 09 | Feather Cloak (Ahu 'Ula) | 18th c. | Feathers, fiber netting | Hawaii | Red/yellow = mana & rank; only ali'i wear; kapu |
| 10 | Tapa (Kapa) | ca. 1800–1820 | Bark cloth (wauke) | Hawaii | Beater-stamped patterns; kapa tradition ended 1820s |
| 11 | Tattooed Man (after Webber) | ca. 1784 | Engraving | Polynesia (Marquesas) | Cook voyage document; colonial gaze; tatau etymology |
| 12 | Female Figure (Tiki) | 19th c. | Tridacna shell | Polynesia (Marquesas) | Large eyes = Marquesan style; ancestor figure; pendant |
| 13 | Tamati Waka Nene | 1890 | Oil on canvas | Māori/New Zealand | Tā moko depicted; huia feather = extinct bird + rank |
| 14 | Presentation of Fijian Mats | 1953 | Event painting | Fiji | Vakavanuatū gifting; living tradition; colonial encounter |
| 15 | Māori Meeting House (Wharenui) | 19th–20th c. | Carved wood | Māori/New Zealand | Building = ancestor's body; tukutuku panels; poupou |
| 16 | Bis Pole | 20th c. | Mangrove wood | Melanesia (Asmat) | Stacked ancestors; motivate headhunting; left to rot |
| 17 | Fatu Feu'u | late 20th c. | Acrylic paint | Contemporary | Diaspora; siapo patterns in painting; cultural continuity |
Spiritual power that accumulates in persons, objects, and places. Hawaiian feather cloaks, Māori tā moko, and Fijian tapa all materialize mana. It is not static — it increases with use, gifting, and ancestral association.
System of sacred restrictions in Hawaiian society. Certain colors (yellow), objects, and behaviors were kapu — forbidden to commoners. The feather cloak's yellow feathers were kapu to all but ali'i (chiefs). Abolished 1819.
Made by beating the inner bark of paper mulberry (wauke/hiapo) until it felts into cloth. Known as kapa (Hawaii), hiapo (Niue), masi (Fiji), siapo (Samoa). Used for clothing, gifting, ceremony across the Pacific.
The Māori wharenui (meeting house) IS an ancestor — ridge pole = spine, rafters = ribs, façade = face. To enter is to be inside the ancestor's body. Pacific architecture routinely personifies the body of a founding ancestor.
Marshall Islands navigation charts (rebbelib/mattang) encode ocean swell patterns, not geographic maps. They are mnemonic tools — felt, memorized, and internalized — representing a knowledge system embedded in material form.
New Ireland malagan carvings are made specifically for a mortuary ceremony and then destroyed or sold. The bis pole is left to rot. Impermanence is not failure — it is the point; the object's dissolution releases ancestral power.
European contact (Cook voyages 1768–1779; missionary activity 1820s onward) dramatically disrupted Pacific cultures. Hawaiian kapa production ended by 1820s. Buk masks were collected by museums. The Webber drawing is both a primary source and a colonial gaze.
Facial tattoo encoding genealogy, rank, and identity. Each tā moko is unique to its bearer — it IS their identity document. In the Lindauer portrait, Tamati Waka Nene's tā moko is rendered with ethnographic accuracy, asserting Māori identity through European medium.
The moai on their ahu (platforms) face inland toward the community, not outward toward the ocean. They protect the living, not watch for incoming ships. This is among the most tested facts about Rapa Nui.
Marshall Islands rebbelib charts encode ocean swell patterns and island positions as mnemonics — they are not accurate geographic maps. Navigators read them by touch and memorization, not visual reference during a voyage.
Malagan carvings are made to be displayed once and then destroyed or sold. Calling them "poorly preserved" misunderstands their purpose — impermanence IS the ritual function, not a failure of material conservation.
The Māori meeting house (wharenui) is the literal body of a named ancestor. "Meeting inside the ancestor" is not a metaphor — it is the architectural principle. Do not describe it merely as a "community gathering hall."
The Buk turtle-shell mask is NOT worn over the face like a Western mask. It is worn horizontally on top of the head, with the performer looking through the open mouth — a key formal detail the AP may test.
In the Cook Islands staff god (to'o), the divine power resides in the fiber wrapping, not the carved wooden core. The object is not "decorated" — the binding constitutes the deity's presence. Unwrapping would release the god.
Missionary contact and Western cloth imports caused Hawaiian kapa-making to collapse after the 1820s. Kapa in museum collections is therefore a pre-contact or early-contact tradition — do not imply it is a continuous living practice.
The portrait was painted by Gottfried Lindauer — a German-born European artist — in 1890, based on an earlier photograph. The painter is NOT Māori. The huia feather Tamati wears is from a now-extinct bird, which increases the work's poignancy as a document of loss.