Les Marquisiens Et Leur Art

Karl Von Den Steinen (1855-1929) is an essential author for anyone interested in Marquesan civilization and Eastern Polynesia. The result of a detailed study of the various forms of artistic expression - then threatened with extinction - conducted by the German doctor in the archipelago at the end of the 19th century, Les Marquisiens et leur art has been a reference work since its first publication in 1925. Its success for nearly a century has never been denied, even if the French-speaking readership had to wait until 2005 to benefit from the translation initiated by the Museum of Tahiti and the Islands. These three volumes, for the first time gathered in a boxed set in this new edition, represent a remarkable and unequalled sum of knowledge on the art of tattooing in Polynesia, preceded by historical and ethnographic data (Volume I), the material culture and the art of the Tiki (Volume II), abundantly illustrated and completed by "The collections" (Volume III) regrouping a part of the iconography evoked in the two other volumes. A work that combines methodological rigor with a genuine encounter with the population and thus participates in the safeguarding of a remarkable aspect of the history of civilizations.