This collection of articles touches upon some important issues in humanistic anthropology.... Folklorists, students of comparative literature, and anthropologists can all find something of interest in these essays." -American Anthropologist

Superbly edited, impeccably researched, and discriminatingly tied together as a coherent gathering of insight, the volume is a welcome addition to a significant field of study that is only now beginning to appreciate the finer achievements of the South Pacific's unique contribution." -Rongorongo Studies

... the defining collection on contemporary verbal arts in Oceania.... of real value to scholars concerned with the relationships between verbal art, social change, gender, power, [and] social organization." -Don Brenneis

... it will be welcome to historians of the South Pacific and useful to others grappling with problems of oral tradition." -Journal of Interdisciplinary History

The volume abundantly illustrates the continuing vitality of oral traditions in the South Pacific, as well as the continuing wealth these traditions provide for researchers." -Pacific Affairs