Gell's combinatorial analysis of variations in tattooing practices and social organization in Polynesia is shown to be incomplete. Our purpose is to revise and generalize Gell's analysis and extend it to include the historically related societies of nuclear Micronesia. The discovery of the missing Micronesian variations has important implications for comparative studies of symbolism and social stratification in Oceania, and illustrates the advantages of combinatorial methods in anthropology.
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