canoe house

The roofs of canoe houses, which were the centres of male activities, were supported on huge posts carved with full-length figures of bonito, sharks, and ancestors. Model canoes and large carvings of bonito were kept in these houses, and ancestral skulls were enshrined there. Fish and animal motifs…

Canoe houses were another important form of building throughout Micronesia. Those big enough to store the larger canoes were on the scale of meetinghouses and often were used as such in some areas. Small buildings for the isolation of menstruating women were common in the…