An Enigma from the South Seas: Early Studies of Vanuatu Sand-Drawing (1926-1936)

Baron, Jacopo (2026) An Enigma from the South Seas: Early Studies of Vanuatu Sand-Drawing (1926-1936). Journal de la Societe des Oceanistes, 126. pp. 22-51. ISSN 1760-7256

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Abstract

Between 1926 and 1927—the year of his untimely death in the field—British anthropologist Bernard Deacon drafted what is today regarded as the first systematic documentation of Vanuatu Sand-Drawing. Once sent to England, his notes and sketches sparked a heated academic debate about the nature and origin of this practice, pitting art biologists against artists and hyper-diffusionists. This contribution aims to reconstruct that early debate by bringing to the fore the theories that informed it and show how recent field data can help shed new light on some of the unresolved issues it raised—namely those concerning the role of agency and creativity within the practice.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	vanuatu sand-drawing,,history of anthropology,anthropology of art,arthur bernard deacon
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Centres > Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas
Related URLs:	https://journals.openedition.org/jso/180...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	06 Oct 2026 15:20
Last Modified:	10 Oct 2026 23:06
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104733
DOI:

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