The Ear-Flyers and Related Motifs in the Gilbert Islands and Its Neighbors

A FEW YEARS AGO when Bacil Kirtley asked me if Micronesia and Polynesia had the Ear-Sleeper motif, I did not recall having encountered it and have not yet found an example. His question, however, made me aware of the motif and subsequently enabled me to recognize other motifs probably associated with it and understand certain obscure statements in genealogical traditions of different families in the Gilbert Islands and Banaba (Ocean Island)-.motifs about extraordinary birds, huge-eared ancestors, and voyages to islands occupied by flap-eared and other weird races of people. Related references come from Nauru and the Ellice Islands, neighboring Polynesian islands, which share much culture in common with the Micronesian Gilberts and Banaba

Aesthetics · Art · Biology · Evolutionary biology · Genealogy · Geography · Micronesian · Motif (music) · Polynesians · Sociology · Demography · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies