Developments in Polynesian Ethnology

Developments in Polynesian Ethnology PDF Author: Robert Borofsky
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824881966
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Development in Polynesian Ethnology assesses the current state of anthropological research in Polynesia by examining the debates and issues that shape the discipline today. What have anthropologists achieved? What concerns now dominate discussion? Where is Polynesian anthropology headed? In a series of provocative and original essays, leading scholars examine prehistory, social organization, socialization and character development, mana and tapu, chieftainship, art and aesthetics, and early contact. Together these essays show how history, anthropology, and archaeology have combined to give a broad understanding of Polynesian societies developing over time--how they represent a blend of modernity and tradition, continuity and change. This book is both an introduction to Polynesia for interested students and a thought-provoking synthesis for scholars charting new directions and posing possibilities for future research. Scholars outside Polynesian studies will find the perspectives it offers important and its comprehensive bibliography an invaluable resource.

Developments in Polynesian Ethnology

Developments in Polynesian Ethnology PDF Author: Robert Borofsky
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824881966
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Get Book Here

Book Description
Development in Polynesian Ethnology assesses the current state of anthropological research in Polynesia by examining the debates and issues that shape the discipline today. What have anthropologists achieved? What concerns now dominate discussion? Where is Polynesian anthropology headed? In a series of provocative and original essays, leading scholars examine prehistory, social organization, socialization and character development, mana and tapu, chieftainship, art and aesthetics, and early contact. Together these essays show how history, anthropology, and archaeology have combined to give a broad understanding of Polynesian societies developing over time--how they represent a blend of modernity and tradition, continuity and change. This book is both an introduction to Polynesia for interested students and a thought-provoking synthesis for scholars charting new directions and posing possibilities for future research. Scholars outside Polynesian studies will find the perspectives it offers important and its comprehensive bibliography an invaluable resource.

Polynesia in Early Historic Times

Polynesia in Early Historic Times PDF Author: Douglas L. Oliver
Publisher: Bess Press
ISBN: 9781573061254
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
"This book presents a comprehensive and balanced description of major aspects of Polynesian cultures, using both the accounts of the European "discoverers" and the up-to-date writings of archaeologists and anthropologists".--BOOKJACKET.

New Mana

New Mana PDF Author: Matt Tomlinson
Publisher: ANU Press
ISBN: 1760460087
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
‘Mana’, a term denoting spiritual power, is found in many Pacific Islands languages. In recent decades, the term has been taken up in New Age movements and online fantasy gaming. In this book, 16 contributors examine mana through ethnographic, linguistic, and historical lenses to understand its transformations in past and present. The authors consider a range of contexts including Indigenous sovereignty movements, Christian missions and Bible translations, the commodification of cultural heritage, and the dynamics of diaspora. Their investigations move across diverse island groups—Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Hawai‘i, and French Polynesia—and into Australia, North America and even cyberspace. A key insight that the volume develops is that mana can be analysed most productively by paying close attention to its ethical and aesthetic dimensions. Since the late nineteenth century, mana has been an object of intense scholarly interest. Writers in many fields including anthropology, linguistics, history, religion, philosophy, and missiology have long debated how the term should best be understood. The authors in this volume review mana’s complex intellectual history but also describe the remarkable transformations going on in the present day as scholars, activists, church leaders, artists, and entrepreneurs take up mana in new ways.

Leadership and Change in the Western Pacific

Leadership and Change in the Western Pacific PDF Author: R. Feinberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000323552
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
An ethnographic exploration of the rise of new forms of leadership at community and national levels with islanders are synthesising traditional and Western models.

Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia

Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia PDF Author: Patrick Vinton Kirch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521788793
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
The power of an anthropological approach to long-term history lies in its unique ability to combine diverse evidence, from archaeological artifacts to ethnographic texts and comparative word lists. In this innovative book, Kirch and Green explicitly develop the theoretical underpinnings, as well as the particular methods, for such a historical anthropology. Drawing upon and integrating the approaches of archaeology, comparative ethnography, and historical linguistics, they advance a phylogenetic model for cultural diversification, and apply a triangulation method for historical reconstruction. They illustrate their approach through meticulous application to the history of the Polynesian cultures, and for the first time reconstruct in extensive detail the Ancestral Polynesian culture that flourished in the Polynesian homeland - Hawaiki - some 2,500 years ago. Of great significance for Oceanic studies, Kirch and Green's book will be essential reading for any anthropologist, prehistorian, linguist, or cultural historian concerned with the theory and method of long-term history.

Nature Across Cultures

Nature Across Cultures PDF Author: Helaine Selin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401701490
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
Nature Across Cultures: Views of Nature and the Environment in Non-Western Cultures consists of about 25 essays dealing with the environmental knowledge and beliefs of cultures outside of the United States and Europe. In addition to articles surveying Islamic, Chinese, Native American, Aboriginal Australian, Indian, Thai, and Andean views of nature and the environment, among others, the book includes essays on Environmentalism and Images of the Other, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Worldviews and Ecology, Rethinking the Western/non-Western Divide, and Landscape, Nature, and Culture. The essays address the connections between nature and culture and relate the environmental practices to the cultures which produced them. Each essay contains an extensive bibliography. Because the geographic range is global, the book fills a gap in both environmental history and in cultural studies. It should find a place on the bookshelves of advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars, as well as in libraries serving those groups.

Studies in the Economic History of the Pacific Rim

Studies in the Economic History of the Pacific Rim PDF Author: Dennis O. Flynn
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134753446
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Trade across the Pacific will be one of the dominant forces in the economy of the next century. This collection reflects the birth of Pacific Rim history, until recently largely neglected. It addresses the development of the Pacific Rim over four centuries, combining broad historical syntheses with a range of essays on specific topics, from trade with Hong Kong to British overseas banking. It will form a major contribution to this rapidly expanding new field.

Social Structure, Space and Possession in Tongan Culture and Language

Social Structure, Space and Possession in Tongan Culture and Language PDF Author: Svenja Völkel
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027202834
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
This interdisciplinary study investigates the relationship between culture, language and cognition based on the aspects of social structure, space and possession in Tonga, Polynesia. Grounded on extensive field research, Volkel explores the subject from an anthropological as well as from a linguistic perspective. The book provides new insights into the language of respect, an honorific system which is deeply anchored in the societal hierarchy, spatial descriptions that are determined by socio-cultural and geocentric parameters, kinship terminology and possessive categories that perfectly express the system of social status inequalities among relatives. These examples impressively show that language is deeply anchored in its cultural context. Moreover, the linguistic structures reflect the underlying cognitive frame of its speakers. Just as several cultural practices (sitting order, access to land and gift exchange processes) the linguistic means are not only expressions of stratified social networks but also tools to maintain or negotiate the underlying socio-cultural system."

The Scope of Anthropology

The Scope of Anthropology PDF Author: Laurent Dousset
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857453327
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Some of the most prominent social and cultural anthropologists have come together in this volume to discuss Maurice Godelier’s work. They explore and revisit some of the highly complex practices and structures social scientists encounter in their fieldwork. From the nature–culture debate to the fabrication of hereditary political systems, from transforming gender relations to the problems of the Christianization of indigenous peoples, these chapters demonstrate both the diversity of anthropological topics and the opportunity for constructive dialogue around shared methodological and theoretical models.

Dynamics in Human and Primate Societies

Dynamics in Human and Primate Societies PDF Author: Timothy A. Kohler
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195131681
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
With an emphasis on small-scale societies in an effort to maximize realism in the modeling efforts applied to social evolution, this volume is an important step toward an actor-oriented, cross-disciplinary approach to understanding human behavior over time.".