Changing Contexts, Shifting Meanings: Transformations of Cultural Traditions in Oceania (Hermann, Elfriede Eds)

This book sheds new light on processes of cultural transformation at work in Oceania and analyzes them as products of interrelationships between culturally created meanings and specific contexts. In a series of inspiring essays, noted scholars of the region examine these interrelationships for insight into how cultural traditions are shaped on an ongoing basis.
The collection marks a turning point in the debate on the conceptualization of tradition. Following a critique of how tradition has been viewed in terms of dichotomies like authenticity vs. inauthenticity, contributors stake out a novel perspective in which tradition figures as context-bound articulation. This makes it possible to view cultural traditions as resulting from interactions between people—their ideas, actions, and objects—and the ambient contexts. Such interactions are analyzed from the past down to the Oceanian present—with indigenous agency being highlighted. The work focuses first on early encounters, initially between Pacific Islanders themselves and later with the European navigators of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, to clarify how meaningful actions and contexts interrelated in the past. The present-day memories of Pacific Islanders are examined to ask how such memories represent encounters that occurred long ago and how they influenced the social, political, economic, and religious changes that ensued. Next, contributors address ongoing social and structural interactions that social actors enlist to shape their traditions within the context of globalization and then the repercussions that these intersections and intercultural exchanges of discourses and practices are having on active identity formation as practiced by Pacific Islanders. Finally, two authorities on Oceania—who themselves move in the intersecting space between anthropology and history—discuss the essays and add their own valuable reflections.
With its wealth of illuminating analyses and illustrations, Changing Contexts, Shifting Meanings will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of cultural and social anthropology, history, art history, museology, Pacific studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and literary criticism.
Contributors: Aletta Biersack, Françoise Douaire-Marsaudon, Bronwen Douglas, David Hanlon, Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin, Peter Hempenstall, Margaret Jolly, Miriam Kahn, Martha Kaplan, John D. Kelly, Wolfgang Kempf, Gundolf Krüger, Jacquelyn Lewis-Harris, Lamont Lindstrom, Karen Nero, Ton Otto, Anne Salmond, Serge Tcherkézoff, Paul van der Grijp, Toon van Meijl. 73 illus. Published in association with the Honolulu Academy of Arts Editor: Hermann, Elfriede;Elfriede Hermann is a cultural and social anthropologist at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and also a research fellow at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawai‘i. ForewordStephen Little Acknowledgments IntroductionEngaging with Interactions: Traditions as Context-Bound ArticulationsElfriede Hermann Changing Contexts, Shifting Meanings: The Cook / Forster Collection, For ExampleBrigitta Hauser-Schäublin Part I: Early Encounters Histories of the Before: Lelu, Nan Madol, and Deep Time David Hanlon Beyond the Beach? Re-articulating the Limen in Oceanic Pasts, Presents, and Futures Margaret Jolly Encountering Agency: Islanders, European Voyagers, and the Production of Race in Oceania Bronwen Douglas Aphrodite’s Island: Sexual Mythologies in Early Contact Tahiti Anne Salmond An Encounter with Violence in Paradise: Georg Forster’s Reflections on War in Aotearoa, Tahiti, and Tonga (1772-1775) Gundolf Krüger Inventing Polynesia Serge Tcherkézoff Part II: Memories Naming and Memory on Tanna, Vanuatu Lamont LindstromInventing Traditions and Remembering the Past in Manus Ton Otto Social Mimesis, Commemoration, and Ethnic Performance: Fiji Banaban Representations of the Past Wolfgang Kempf Part III: Global and (Trans)local Processes Moving onto the Stage: Tourism and the Transformation of Tahitian Dance Miriam Kahn Producing Inalienable Objects in a Global Market: The Solien Besena in Contemporary Australia Jacquelyn A. Lewis-Harris Alienation and Appropriation: Fijian Water and the Pacific Romance in Fiji and New York Martha Kaplan Shanti and Mana: The Loss and Recovery of Culture under Postcolonial Conditions in Fiji John D. Kelly Justice in Wallis-‘Uvea: Customary Rights and Republican Law in a French Overseas Territory Françoise Douaire-Marsaudon Part IV: Cultural Exchange and Identities Maori Traditions in Analogy with the Past Toon van Meijl Contemporary Tongan Artists and the Reshaping of Oceanic Identity Paul van der Grijp A Tale of Three Time Travelers: Maintaining Relationships, Exploring Visual Technologies Karen L. Nero Cultural Change in Oceania: Remembering the Historical Questions Peter Hempenstall Epilogue Aletta Biersack Contributors Index.

ISBN: 978-0-8248-3366-4