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274the tradition of vocal polyphony holds an important place in the traditional social life andculture. This undoubtedly is the case in Polynesia.Readers might remember that Polynesia is one of the three world’s richest regionsof the world in regards of traditions of vocal polyphony. Unlike two other richestpolyphonic regions – sub-Saharan Africa and Europe, which had been populated by thecarriers of indigenous vocal polyphonic traditions (sub-Saharan Africans and Europeans)for many millennia, Polynesia has been populated relatively recently and obviously bythe newcomers. The question is where from. The possible source of the outstandingvocal polyphonic traditions of Polynesia is the main topic of this “Case Study”.Strategically surrounded by mostly monophonic Americas, East Asia andAustralia, Polynesian polyphony is one of the most interesting and most isolatedpolyphonic regions of the world.First of all, closer look at the regions around the Pacific Ocean reveals thatPolynesia is not actually surrounded by carriers of the monophonic traditions only.Elements of polyphony had been found among American Indians in both North andSouth America (including old Mesoamerican civilizations), in Japan among Ainus,among indigenous populations of Southeast Asia (minorities living mostly in mountainregions of Taiwan, Vietnam, South China, and other countries of this region), inMicronesia, and most importantly, the strongest vocal polyphonic traditions in this region(after the Polynesians) are found among Melanesians.Therefore it will be closer to the historical reality if we try to find the links thatPolynesian polyphony shows with other polyphonic regions of the Pacific region.From the whole Pacific region Polynesian tradition of vocal polyphony has theclosest parallels with the vocal polyphony of Melanesians and Indigenous peoples of theSoutheast Asia. The only controversy that follows this “western” connections ofPolynesian vocal polyphony, is that the tradition of vocal polyphony is the weakest in thewestern regions of Pacific, and it is increasing from the western regions to the easternregions of the Pacific Ocean. Only minor elements of polyphony are found in Micronesia,in Melanesia polyphony is more pronounced, and the most of the Polynesia is profoundlypolyphonic. This controversy is quite important and puzzling, as you would expect thereversed picture of stratification of the traditions of vocal polyphony - the strongest in thewest (closest to the region where this tradition might originally come from). Besides, theidea of the intense migrations from Melanesia to Polynesia and subsequent“transportation” of the traditions of vocal polyphony from Melanesia to Polynesia looksalso unlikely due to the obvious differences in physical type between the Polynesian andMelanesian peoples.If we look wider in the search of typological connections of Polynesianpolyphony, it must be stated that the closest typological links exist with the Europeanpolyphonic traditions. Marius Schneider was possibly the first who mentioned an unusualcloseness of European and Polynesian vocal polyphony in his “History of Polyphony”.According to Alan Lomax, “Coding from many of the most distant reaches of Oceaniaindicate that certain features common to the Old European style [Old European style forLomax are polyphonic singing traditions of mountain regions of the Europe] were almostsurely present before contact with European explorers in the eighteenth century. The songtraditions ofOceania and Old Europe share distinctive cluster of traits – textual