Margaret Mead was famous for keeping in touch with a wide circle of friends as we see in this collection of wonderfully revealing correspondence from the field. Written over a period of half a century, these letters to friends, family, and colleagues detail her first fieldwork in Samoa and go on to record her now famous anthropological endeavors in mainland New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, and Bali. Enhanced by photographs, these intelligent, vivid,...

From the remote shores of Rapa Nui to the dense rainforest of Papua New Guinea, the islands of the Pacific are home to some of the most culturally diverse populations on the planet. The region embraces an extraordinary range of art forms, from delicate shell ornaments to spectacularly decorated canoes and meeting houses. These have fascinated outsiders since the exploratory voyages of Captain Cook, the first of which commenced 250 years ago in 1768,...