SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This book treats pattern as a material form of thought that provokes connections between disparate things through processes of resemblance, memory, and transformation. Pattern is constantly in a state of motion as it traverses spatial and temporal divides and acts as an endless source for innovation through its inherent transformability. The book argues that it is the ideas carried by pattern's relational capacity that allows Pacific islanders to express their links to land, genealogy, and resources in the most economic ways. The book brings together objects and photographs, historical literature, and contemporary ethnographic case studies to explore pattern in its logical workings. It presents analysis of the well-known patterned shell valuable called kapkap as revealed in New Ireland mortuary feasts. The study of Christianity and the Baha'i faithful in the region shows how pattern has been appropriated in new religious communities. The book argues that pattern is used in various guises in performances, church architecture, and funerary images to contrasting effect. It explores the conditions under which pattern facilitates a connecting of old and new ideas and how missionary processes are implicated in this flow. It then considers the mechanisms under which pattern is internalized, paying particular attention to its embeddedness in spatial and numerical thinking. Finally, the book examines how pattern carries new materials and technologies, which in turn provide new resources for sustaining old beliefs. The book raises key questions about the capacity of pattern across the Pacific to bind and sustain ideas about place, body, and genealogy in the most logical of ways.