W. J. Phillipps (1893–1967)

The information is good in this book, but it's almost like lists rather than interesting, readable material. If I hadn't already read some other books first, I would have missed the importance of a lot of the details given (and, in fact, Phillipps may not have understood some of those key connections).

I'm spoiled by the more appealing layout of newer non-fiction books; this book has an old-fashioned appearance and the pictures are almost all black and white drawings. For the anthropological stuff, that's fine (and nice and clear), but it'd be nice to have more photographs (and color photos, preferably) of the art.

I'd recommend this for anthropological details of early Maori life and/or specific details of some Maori objects, but not for general reading.… (mere)