THE ARTS OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC is the fourth volume in The Arts of Mankind, a series which, when completed, will include forty volumes, planned – in the words of its co-editor, Andre Malraux – to comprise a veritable "museum without walls."

Of past and present civilizations, that of the South Pacific is one of the most difficult to describe accurately. The idyllic and leisurely life that two centuries of romantic literature have associated with it have decoyed more than one chronicler into error. The complexity and variety of life in Oceania are extraordinary, yet in this volume JEAN GUIART proves triumphantly not only that a full, accurate, and unflinchingly objective study is possible, but also that it can be thoroughly fascinating.

The author does not minimize the problems facing a writer on this subject. "Almost all that has been written about Oceania," he remarks, "is (or once was) true, at the moment of writing, at least, and for the individual writer." By means of a brilliant analysis of Oceanic arts, he unravels past from present, truth from misunderstanding. His examination of the subject shows that beneath the Europeanized facade can still be glimpsed "vestiges of the ancient social order," and that nowhere is this commingling of old and new more clearly discenible than in the realm of the arts.