There are far fewer publications on the ethnology of Micronesia than for any other region in the Pacific. This dearth is especially seen in the traditional religion, folklore, and iconography of the area. Haynes and Wuerch have located 1,193 relevant titles. For the first time, these mostly scarce or unpublished materials are now accessible in this essential research tool. The focus is on tradition, which became modified after contact with the West--the adaptation and persistence of these traditions are included in this bibliography.

Traditional Micronesian iconography is largely religious in nature, as is the case with most tribal or preliterate societies. There is also a large corpus of Micronesian myths, legends, beliefs, and practices that may not fit the Western concept of religion, but would be classified under folklore. That distinction cannot be consistently made in Micronesian cultures, nor in most other preliterate, thus prehistoric, societies. The overlap of religion and folklore is pervasive, so the scope of subjects included is broad. The subject matter encompasses magic, sorcery, ritual, cosmology, mythology, iconography, iconology, oral traditions, songs, chants, dance, music, traditional medicine, and many activities of daily life. Only those works that directly treat these subjects in the context of religion or folklore are included in this volume.

The most up-to-date compilation of bibliographical sources on anthropology and related cultural subjects in Micronesia, this work provides easy access to the sizeable body of literature written about the area in the twelve-year period covered. The compilers' liberal selection criteria make this social science resource especially thorough and valuable. Many of the more than 1800 cited documents are of cross-disciplinary interest and are accordingly indexed under two or more subject terms or geographical areas. Geographically, the area covered by this material includes the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands, the Mariana Islands, plus Nauru and Kiribati, two areas which are culturally a part of Micronesia. Specific island names are found in the geographical index which is preceded by a helpful list of island names used as well as their alternate names and variant spellings. Although scientific material unless it addresses cultural aspects has not been included, reports of the effects of radio active fallout in the Marshall Islands are cited due to the impact this issue has had and continues to have on residents and their way of life. In this volume's context, the term psychology encompasses not only psychological and psychiatric elements of Micronesian cultures, but is also assigned to works dealing with alcohol and drug abuse and the problem of suicide in Micronesia. Books, journal articles, dissertations, theses, government documents, conference papers, popular magazine articles, monographs, periodical articles and unpublished manuscripts are among the wealth of sources indexed. Reviews of works are included only when they contain substantial discussion of their subject matter and provide reactions to the theories posited by such work. The Micronesian Area Bibliographic Database at the Micronesia Area Research Center and a manual review of innumerable references constitute the sources for the citations in this thorough work which provides bibliographic control over this wealth of material. Students and scholars working on these related topics will find Micronesia, 1975-1987: A Social Science Bibliography an indispensible reference.