Pacific Voices ─ Keeping Our Cultures Alive

These 17 illustrated essays describe the connections between objects, people and cultural identity. Although the objects are constantly changing, whether from exposure to new materials or technical expertise or wrought by their owners' coming to a new place, they also reflect the emotions of the owner, stir the memory, provide comfort and healing, and make a statement about how the owner's world should be. The objects include Hawaiian and Japanese drums, Samoan community bowls, Maori mantles of status, Micronesian canoes, Vietnamese incense burners, Lao musical pipes, Philippine icons, Korean cups, Japanese altars, Chinese New Year foods, Coast Salish fish hooks and canoes, Northwest wolf headdresses, and Inupiaq open boats. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Miriam Kahn is professor of anthropology at the University of Washington and served as curator-in-charge for the