Oceanic arts

Oceanic arts, the literary, performing, and visual arts of the Pacific Islands, including Australia, New Zealand, and Easter Island, and the general culture areas of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. Many of the island clusters within these culture areas are separated by vast stretches of ocean, and the resultant isolation, together with the wide range of environmental conditions present, has led to the development of a rich variety of artistic styles.

Indonesian affinities with Oceania have been postulated on the basis of Lapita pottery, which is stylistically similar to early ceramics found on the Moluccas. These early people settled farther east on Tonga and Samoa, where a millennium of isolation bred a distinct Polynesian culture. (See also Melanesian culture; Micronesian culture.) When Samoan seafarers arrived on Marquesas, it became the dispersal centre for Polynesian culture. By the end of the 1st millennium ad, the culture area embraced New Zealand, but the Marquesan settlers, who had lost many plants and animals en route, were forced by an alien climate and land to abandon cultivation and take up hunting. The break was complete by ad 1400, and the warrior bands typical of New Zealand ventured inland in search of game. Australian Aborigines have retained a similar mode of life in sharp contrast to the agricultural subsistence prevalent among most Oceanic islanders. Divergent cultural developments were the inevitable by-product of centuries of demographic isolation; Oceania is little more than a name of geographic convenience. The baffling array of discrete culture groups is paralleled by great linguistic diversity. It is difficult to establish any constant Oceanic features or patterns of behaviour and belief that have a universal distribution. It is hardly surprising that the artistic traditions of Oceania should be extensively varied—even at a local level. Intercultural exchange is not unknown, but borrowed artifacts invariably gain new functions and value in their new setting. New aesthetic elements are absorbed and diffused with such rapidity that any scheme of distribution of themes and techniques would be subject to constant review. Nevertheless, some symbols do appear to have wider significance; the bird is a universal motif symbolizing virility and power. Indigenous traits are sometimes discarded and then resumed at will.

The arts of Oceania are underlain by highly complex mythological and cosmogonic systems. Religion and ritual strongly influence every aspect of Oceanic life, and their association with the arts is especially close. Religious symbolism infuses not only the objects, dances, and speeches used in ritual but also the materials and tools used to create them. The individual who creates or commissions a work is similarly esteemed, and the craftsman’s skill—whether applied to ritual or to secular, utilitarian works—is highly valued. Craftsmanship, in fact, is the main criterion by which a work is judged. Art, moreover, is produced for particular functions: reinforcing social ranking or political influence; propitiating gods, spirits, and ancestors; encouraging good harvests or successful hunting trips; and celebrating important community events.

The arts of the traditional peoples of Oceania are treated in a number of articles; see art and architecture, Oceanic; music and dance, Oceanic; and Oceanic literature. Although these articles include the effects of Western colonization and the adaptation of traditional forms to modern technology, they do not treat the postcolonial adoption of wholly Western styles and forms. The written literatures of Australia and New Zealand, for example, are derived from and strongly influenced by the English literary tradition; they are therefore discussed separately in the articles Australian literature and New Zealand literature. Information on the geographic, economic, and historical background of Oceanic arts can be found in the article Pacific Islands, history of.