28 Jul 2008

Different cultural attitudes toward the body exposed at Pacific Arts Festival

6:15 am on 28 July 2008

Different cultural attitudes to exposing the body have led to calls for tolerance at the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts being held in Pago Pago in American Samoa.

The organizing committee has appealed to the normally conservative public to be accepting of other cultures.

During displays so far, female dancers from Papua New Guinea have exposed their breasts, and the men have paraded wearing penis gourds.

But there has already been one complaint.

At the end of a brief routine, a local orator lifted a dancer from Rapa Nui and held her for about 5 minutes

A police officer gave the orator a warning that if he repeated the action, he would be arrested.