ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the role of animals as visual and cultural metaphors among the people of the Solomon Islands. The Solomons, a principal group of Melanesian islands in the western Pacific Ocean, lie east of New Guinea and north of Vanuatu. Crocodiles are the major land or sea animal depicted in sculpture and painting from the western Solomon Islands. In the eastern Solomon Islands, annual fishing for species of bonito and tuna occurs between March and June during a period of calm and shifting winds. The ritual use of animal metaphor to assist in the process of transformation from one state of existence to another appears to have been a more obvious feature of the eastern Solomon Islands. Artefact clusters from the eastern Solomon Islands are indicated in together with animals represented on the artefacts. Custom houses have traditionally served as canoe-storage houses, meeting places, and foci for ritual in the eastern Solomon Islands.
