is a little out of step

The ' Dance in the Pacific' is a little out of step

There is a dearth of books on the arts of the Pacific, particularly the art of dance, therefore, every book on this subject is looked to with eagerness, Unfortunately, The Dance in the Pacific by W.A. Poort adds very little to the information about the subject, Its statements are in many cases oversimplifications and too general, while it gives a strong impression of limited first-hand knowledge of the subject of dance That The Dance in the Pacific valiantly tries to trace the origins of Pacific dance to the Indonesian Islands is in itself praiseworthy since a number of scientists among others, archaeologists, through such finds as Lapita potter and other artifacts, and linguists, through Austronesian language studies now suggest that the nest of origin and travels of the three racial groups, Polynesian, Melanesian, Micronesian, are very possibly from and through South- East Asia.

That this book suffers from too great a number of generalisations is seen, for example, in the use of the word ‘Polynesian’. It appears, from Mr Poort’s arguments, that what he seems to mean by that word is the culture developed in the French Society Islands and in particular in ancient times, since many of the circular pattern dances he shows in diagrams

and in discussions along the way have long since disappeared from Tahiti.

Broad statements such as, “Dances in a single circle are performed all over Polynesia” (p 29) are misleading because in today’s expression of dance in, say, the Manihiki, Atiu, Mangaia, Rarotonga islands of the Cook group, or Niue, or Tonga, or New Zealand, circle dances are so rare as to seem to be almost non-existent.

In reading The Dance in the Pacific one wonders at the lack of life, at the absence of human contact situations.

The book gives the impressions of a work prepared second-hand and at a great distance from Pacific sources.

There are also too many editorial and grammatical errors and it is dismay ing to find spelling mistakes cropping up all through the book.

One must question many points made in the book. On page 29, the following quote is quite untenable: “Dances in various frontal lines behind each other are widespread as well in Polynesia as in Micronesia, but are lacking in Rarotonga, the Tuamotus, the Tubuai Archipelago, the I les Gambler and New Zealand. ” (The italics are mine.) Both in Rarotonga and New Zealand dancers do stand in lines one behind the other in action songs, in Rarotonga for drum dances, and in New Zealand for both poi dances and haka war dances and on page 52, “Stamping dances are scarce in Polynesia”. Niue, Tonga, Samoa and New Zealand all have dances in which stamping is included. One could use numerous other such examples from this book.

Mr Poort’s effort points to a direc tion where much work remains to be done. It has a value from that point of view for the knowledgeable dance oriented ethnologist but not for lay beginners. Unfortunately, he has not achieved the very worthwhile aim he set for himself nor has he added anything significant to the quote he uses in the preface, from Helen H.

Roberts.

Referring to dance she says, “I can merely indicate that there lies an almost untouched field for in vestigation”. Fifty years later that statement remains just as true as it was in 1926. Victor Carell. (THE DANCE IN THE PACIFIC. By W.A. Poor!. Publish ed by Van Der Lee Press, Katwijk, Netherlands, No price indicated.)