Rites and beliefs, supernatural beings, heroes of culture and divinities, mythical geographies, initiation rites and secret cults; death and eschatology, archetypal symbols and cosmogonic myths: a profound synthesis of the structure and creativity of aboriginal religions. The territory that includes Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and the numerous islands that dot the Pacific has provided for its cultural history a particularly rich contribution to ethnological and anthropological research and still today offers, in its remote offshoots, some surprising discoveries. The volume deals above all with the religious phenomena of aboriginal peoples who until a few decades ago still lived "on an ethnological level"; the tiring and often tormented entry of these populations into modernity is traced and analyzed, which is still taking place amid tragic loss of identity and proud claims of cultural roots. The history of the spread of Christianity in Oceania is also complex and significant, from the first missionary attempts to the current organization of the Churches and the development of new religious experiences.