Wrapping in images : tattooing in Polynesia

In traditional Polynesian societies, tattooing has played a key role in the social construction of the individual. This is the first study to provide a comparative analysis of tattooing in its original setting--based on a comprehensive survey of both written and oral sources. Drawing on modern social theory, psychoanalysis, and anthropological studies, Gell demonstrates the role of tattooing in the complex array of controlling sacredness and protecting the self.

• Theoretical introduction
• Western Polynesia and Fiji
• the society of islands
• The Marquesas
• Mangareva
• outer Eastern Polynesia
• the epidemiology of Polynesian tattooing - concluding comments.

Wrapping in Images is the first comparative analysis of tattooing in Polynesia in its original setting, based on a comprehensive survey of both written and visual documentary sources. Drawing on modern social theory, psychoanalysis, and contemporary anthropology, Alfred Gell shows how tattooing formed part of a complex array of symbolic techniques for controlling sacredness and protecting the self. He uses this framework to examine the iconographic meaning of tattoo motifs, the rich corpus of mythology surrounding tattooing in some Polynesian societies, and the complex rituals associated with the tattoing operation. he also demonstrates how not all ancient Polynesian societies placed an equal emphasis on tattooing, or exploited the basic metaphors in the same way. Gell's wide-ranging, comparative political analysis shows consistent correlations between forms of political structure and different tattooing institutions, offering a new perspective on Polynesian comparative sociology.