ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the intricacies of Melanesian material culture in relation to local notions of the connection between persons and things, and ideas of creation and destruction in the context of life-cycle rituals, colonialism and recent events and debates around cultural heritage. Life-cycle rituals highlight the relationality of persons and things and mark changes in people’s role and status, for example, attaining adulthood, and marriage. The mediation of social relations through the creation, manipulation and destruction of material culture is exemplified beautifully in Foster’s work on mortuary ritual and gift exchange in the Tanga Islands. Melanesian objects have predominantly been approached by Europeans from functional and aesthetic viewpoints, as ‘craft’ and ‘art’, respectively. The powers of Melanesian things, which might be either beneficial or harmful, were also recognised by colonial officials and missionaries. The creation, use and destruction of material culture in Melanesia highlight the intimate connections between sociality, fertility, death and decay.
