Reviews

`Wrapping in Images: Tattooing in Polynesia promised to be that long-awaited treatise which would address and analyse the complexities of tattoo in Polynesia ... Gell's approach to this topic combines current psychoanalytical and deconstruction theories ... Wrapping in Images adds to the dialogue concerning Polynesian tattoo. As a resource it does offer new insights and theories about the relationship of tattoo and status.'
Museum Anthropology
`A significant contribution to Pacific history and the anthropology of Polynesia.'
Choice
`Depth and scope and a degree of audacity that take it far beyond the purely academic problem ... it proves to be particularly pertinent for analyzing Polynesian thought.'
Pacific Arts
`Wrapping in Images ... is in the best tradition of British social anthropology: clever and crisp, filled with structural and symbolic insights and organization by means of "controlled comparisons" ... it succeeds admirably, elucidating structures of tattooing in the inscription of Pacific bodies ... an ambitious book which displays remarkable scholarship and erudition.'
American Anthropologist
`well-written volume ... Wrapping in Images is an impressive scholarly achievement which will interest both those new to Polynesia and specialists in the field. For the novice, this book provides a useful introduction to the region and its scholarship ... Gell presents provocative ideas about both Polynesian cultures and the nature of tattooing which will undoubtedly stimulate further discussion ... More specifically, this work presents a detailed test case
which has the potential to shape ongoing debates about the relationships between Polynesian cultures.'
Anne D'Alleva, Journal of the Anthropomancal Society of Oxford, 26/2 (1995)
`This impressive study takes a comprehensive view of the practice of tattooing in Polynesia ... The scope of Gell's investigation is impressive, and it's interpretation ultimately convincing.'
Ruth Barnes, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol.60 no.1 1997