The Pacific, 700–1980 CE
What this domain tests
Oceanic art: Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Aotearoa New Zealand. Concepts: ancestor veneration, mana (spiritual power), tapu (sacred restriction), chiefly regalia, canoe and navigation as cosmology, moai and ahu platforms, tapa (barkcloth), headdress and featherwork, carved meeting houses, and contemporary Pacific artists addressing diaspora and sovereignty.
Traps
- Moai are not "mystery statues"; they are ancestral figures associated with ahu platforms, facing inland over communities.
- Mana is power/ efficacy, not simply "magic"; tapu is restriction, not curse.
- Pacific art often uses local materials (feathers, shell, fiber, wood) whose value is spiritual and political, not merely aesthetic.
- Don't treat the Pacific as one culture; distinguish Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian traditions.
Rule of thumb
Ask what power does this object carry, who may handle it, and how is it displayed or worn? Mana and tapu organize many answers.
Worked example
A large stone ancestral figure on a platform facing inland is a moai on an ahu - a community-facing ancestral presence, not a tomb marker facing the sea.