On the Road of the Winds

On the Road of the Winds
Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2002-03-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520234618

Providing a synthesis of archaeological and historical anthropological knowledge of the indigenous cultures of the Pacific islands, this text focuses on human ecology and island adaptations.

Authenticity and Authorship in Pacific Island Encounters

Authenticity and Authorship in Pacific Island Encounters
Author: Jeannette Mageo
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2021-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1800730551

The insular Pacific is a region saturated with great cultural diversity and poignant memories of colonial and Christian intrusion. Considering authenticity and authorship in the area, this book looks at how these ideas have manifested themselves in Pacific peoples and cultures. Through six rich complementary case studies, a theoretical introduction, and a critical afterword, this volume explores authenticity and authorship as “traveling concepts.” The book reveals diverse and surprising outcomes which shed light on how Pacific identity has changed from the past to the present.

Saltwater Sociality

Saltwater Sociality
Author: Katharina Schneider
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2012
Genre: History
ISBN: 0857453017

The inhabitants of Pororan Island, a small group of 'saltwater people' in Papua New Guinea, are intensely interested in the movements of persons across the island and across the sea, both in their everyday lives as fishing people and on ritual occasions. From their observations of human movements, they take their cues about the current state of social relations. Based on detailed ethnography, this study engages current Melanesian anthropological theory and argues that movements are the Pororans' predominant mode of objectifying relations. Movements on Pororan Island are to its inhabitants what roads are to 'mainlanders' on the nearby larger island, and what material objects and images are to others elsewhere in Melanesia.

The Power of Perspective

The Power of Perspective
Author: Knut Mikjel Rio
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2007
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781845452933

Focusing on different forms of agency in North Ambrym social life, the author demonstrates the potency of outsiders at different times and in different situations in Ambrym society. This model challenges the premises of much Western thinking about reciprocity, and suggests new directions in the analysis of Melanesian societies

Change and Continuity in the Pacific

Change and Continuity in the Pacific
Author: John Connell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 355
Release: 2018-04-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351743716

Thousands of studies have been conducted by social scientists in the villages and islands, and increasingly in the towns, of the Pacific. Despite this, there are few longitudinal studies of any great depth and sophistication in the region. The contributors to this book have all conducted long-term research in the islands of the Pacific. During their visits and revisits they have witnessed first-hand the many changes that have occurred in their fieldsites as well as observing elements of continuity. They bring to their accounts a sense of their surprise at some of the unexpected elements of stability and of transformation. The authors take a range of disciplinary approaches, particularly geography and anthropology, and their contributions reflect their deep knowledge of Pacific places, some first visited more than 40 years ago. Many of the chapters focus on aspects of socio-economic change and continuity, while others focus on specific issues such as the impact of both internal and international migration, political and cultural change, technological innovation and the experiences of children and youth. By focusing on both change and continuity this collection of 11 case studies shows the complex relationships between Pacific societies and processes of ‘modernity’ and globalisation. By using a long-term lens on particular places, the authors are able to draw out the subtleties of change and its impacts, while also paying attention to what, in the contemporary Pacific, has been left remarkably unchanged. Filling a gap in the studies of the Pacific region, this book will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience in the fields of anthropology, development, geography, and Asia-Pacific studies.

Living Kinship in the Pacific

Living Kinship in the Pacific
Author: Christina Toren
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2015-04-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1782385789

Unaisi Nabobo-Baba observed that for the various peoples of the Pacific, kinship is generally understood as “knowledge that counts.” It is with this observation that this volume begins, and it continues with a straightforward objective to provide case studies of Pacific kinship. In doing so, contributors share an understanding of kinship as a lived and living dimension of contemporary human lives, in an area where deep historical links provide for close and useful comparison. The ethnographic focus is on transformation and continuity over time in Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa with the addition of three instructive cases from Tokelau, Papua New Guinea, and Taiwan. The book ends with an account of how kinship is constituted in day-to-day ritual and ritualized behavior.