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Pacific Answers to Western Hegemony: Cultural Practices of Identity Construction book cover

1st Edition

Pacific Answers to Western Hegemony Cultural Practices of Identity Construction

Edited By Jürg Wassmann Copyright 1998
    458 Pages
    by Routledge

    458 Pages
    by Routledge

    458 Pages
    by Routledge
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    The destruction of local identity through the relentless encroachment of a 'McDonald-ized' cultural imperialism is a global phenomenon. Yet the reactions of Pacific peoples to this Western hegemony are diverse and encourage the creation of independent cultural identities through sports and games, political mediations, tourism, media and filmmaking, and the struggles for land rights and titles, particularly in Australia.This book, based on extensive fieldwork, addresses a subject of great immediacy to peoples of the Pacific Island nations. It fills an important gap in existing ethnographic literature on the region and confidently navigates what had previously been considered uncharted, even unchartable, waters -- that wide sea between the classic ethnography of Oceania and contemporary anthropology's theoretical concerns with global relations and transnational cultures. Its breadth, rigour, and timely contribution to post-colonial politics in Oceania are certain to ensure that this book will provide an enduring contribution to the field.

    Contents: Jürg Wassmann, Introduction -- Part One: Constituting Historical Knowledge -- Jonathan Friedman, Knowing Oceania or Oceanian Knowing: Identifying Actors and Activating Identities in Turbulent Times -- Bronwen Douglas, Inventing Natives/Negotiating Local Identities: Postcolonial Readings of Colonial Texts on Island Melanesia -- Ben Burt, Writing Local History in Solomon Islands -- Gunter Senft, ‘Noble Savages' and ‘the Islands of Love': Trobriand Islanders in ‘Popular Publications' -- Part Two: Ways of Constructing Identities -- Nigel Stephenson, Contrasting Transcripts: Constructing Images and Identities in Mediations among the Wam People of Papua New Guinea -- Berit Gustafsson, The Identity Construction of Ethnic and Social Groups in Contemporary Papua New Guinea -- Gerhard Schneider, Re-Inventing Identities: Re-Defining Cultural Concepts in the Struggle between Villagers in Munda, Roviana Lagoon, New Georgia Is., Solomon Islands for the Control of Land -- Phillippe Peltier, ‘Alas! And on we go' -- Ton Otto, Resource Management in Lavongai and Tigak Islands: Changing Practices, Changing Identities -- Thomas K. Fitzgerald, Metaphors, Media and Social Change: Second-Generation Cook Islanders in New Zealand -- Jens Pinholt, Identity Construction as a Cooperative Object: Anthropological Film-Making with the Vaiakau and Fenualoa Peoples, Reef Islands, Temotu Province, Solomon Islands -- Part Three: Australia after Mabo -- Robert Tonkinson, National Identity: Australia After Mabo -- Ad Borsboom, Knowing the Country: Mabo, Native Title and ‘Traditional' Law in Aboriginal Australia -- Barbara Glowczewski-Barker, ‘All One but Different': Aboriginality: National Identity versus Local Diversification in Australia -- John Morton, Essentially Black, Essentially Australian, Essentially Opposed: Australian Anthropology and its Uses of Aboriginal Identity -- Part Four: Questioning Western Democracy? -- Toon van Meijl, Culture and Democracy among the Maori -- Serge Tcherkézoff, Is Aristocracy Good for Democracy? A Contemporary Debate in Western Samoa

    Biography

    Jürg Wassmann University of Heidelberg

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