Papua New Guinea Creative Arts Centre

The contemporary artwork movement in Papua New Guinea is 20 years young. Spectacular carvings and painted objects, such as ancestor figures and masks, created for ritual and ceremonial purposes, are included in Contemporary Art in Papua New Guinea along with canoe prows, musical instruments, and elaborate body decorations. The accompanying text offers a personal interpretation of the current art movement and its ties to Papua New Guinea's society and culture.

A study of nation-building processes in the young state of Papua New Guinea, and of opposition to these in one of the country's peripheral provinces, Manus. Intense resistance to Lucifer (the state) is offered there by Wind Nation, the old Paliau Movement made famous by Mead and Schwartz.

Combines a survey of world art with maps showing the associations and dissemination of culture across the globe.

Includes detailed chapters devoted to each of the five major cultural regions of the Pacific: Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and the islands of Southeast Asia.

Richly illustrated and clearly written, Papua New Guinea Prints is a groundbreaking contribution to the understanding of a vital period in the history of art in Papua New Guinea.

What is creative in kinship? How are people connected to places? James Leach answers these questions through formulating "creativity" as an integral part of kinship on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. The book contains a new critique of the genealogical model of kinship, suggesting that this model prevents us from grasping the way generative relations, including those to land and place, constitute persons on the Rai Coast. Analytic attention is focused upon the life cycle, marriage, exchange and artistic production as the activities in which substantial connection is generated. The argument, made in relation to detailed ethnography, yields a fresh perspective on the connections people trace to each other.