Pacific Islands Languages and Societies Commons^™

Lesbian-Essaying Through Textual In(Ter)Ventions In Memoir, Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz

Akda: The Asian Journal of Literature, Culture, Performance

In this exegetical essay, I show how I have deployed linguistic and non-linguistic strategies in the writing of my memoir in order to make my lesbian identity as a writer visible on the page without explicitly stating it. Using the theoretical ideas of Teresa de Lauretis and Nicole Brossard, I assert that a non-conventional approach to the writing of memoir is how a lesbian writer can challenge heteronormative writing standards, particularly in the Philippine literary system, within which I had allowed myself to be molded in my past writing practice. Some of these textual in(ter)ventions—both inventions and interventions—are narrative structure, …

Gendered Impacts Of Global Economic Shocks: Findings From Households In Melanesia, Jaclyn Donahue, Kathleen Eccles, Simon Feeny, Lachlan Mcdonald, Alberto Posso

Pacific Studies

This paper examines the gendered impacts of multiple severe global economic shocks in two Melanesian countries: Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. It focuses on the sharp food and fuel price hikes in 2007 and 2008 and the subsequent Global Financial Crisis, which quickly turned into a broader economic crisis. Using gender-disaggregated data, it examines the impacts on women across three economic spheres: financial, productive, and reproductive. Findings indicate that that a disproportionate burden of the adjustment to these shocks was borne by women. Without gender-disaggregation and a focus on gender norms, policies risk being at best incomplete and at worst harmful …

From The Fangs Of Monsters: Gender, Empire, And Civilization In The Pacific, 1800-1850, Michael David Chavez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As the nineteenth century commenced, contact between Pacific Islanders and Anglo-Americans increased as did the concern for what resulted from those interactions. In the United States, antebellum restrained men––those who upheld their Protestant faith, self-reliance, and familial values––used ideals of gender to combat the perceived “savagery” of Pacific Islanders and the corruption of American sailors among them. In the mission field, restrained men consciously sought after Anglo-American women’s influence often believing them to be the moral authority of a softer form of empire. This particular form of empire was not government led; nor did it entail the immediate conquest of …

Vol. 37 No. 3 (2014): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 37, No 3-Dec 2014 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Vol. 37 No. 3 (2014): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US $26.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, …

Ruth Benedict And The Study Of Thai Culture, Nicola B. Tannenbaum

Pacific Studies

In this paper, I place Thai Culture and Behavior in the context of Benedict’s work and life, American anthropology, and Thai studies. The paper begins with a summary of Benedict’s study and a critique of her Thai ethnography. This is followed with a discussion of its initial reception when it was first published and its later place in biographies about Benedict. Finally, I turn to my initial question of the role of Thai Culture and Behavior in Thai studies. Here I examine the two subsequent anthropological studies of Thailand: Embree’s seminal essay, “Thailand—A Loosely Structured Society,” the first field- workbased …

Maori Women Researching Ourselves, Ngahuia Te Awekotuku

Pacific Studies

This essay, based on a keynote address titled "Maori Women and Research: Researching Ourselves," explores the significance of Maori women conducting research on their own identities, experiences, and communities. Challenging the dominance of non-Maori scholarship, the author advocates for self-representation and sovereignty in knowledge production. Drawing from intergenerational dialogue, collective reflection, and lived realities, the essay unpacks questions of gender, cultural protocol, positionality, and access within Maori society. It highlights the layered complexities faced by Maori women researchers—navigating traditional expectations, community dynamics, and academic gatekeeping—while affirming the transformative power of research as a tool for empowerment, reclamation, and cultural continuity.

Comparative Criminalization: Cultural Meanings Of Adultery And Gender Violence In Hawai‘I In 1850 And 1990, Sally Engle Merry

Pacific Studies

This essay analyzes the impact of court cases concerning sexuality and adultery on customary understandings of kinship and gender in Hilo, Hawai‘i. During the periods covered the nature of the cases, the content of the law, and the implementation of punishment changed radically. Nevertheless, there are similarities in modes of criminalization during the 1840s and 1850s, on the one hand, and during the 1990s, on the other. Both used the authority and sanctioning power of the law to redefine marriage and gender relations. Both were implemented through local practices of police, courts, and corrections/treatment officials, which provided incentives for compliance …

Book Review Forum: Stephen F. Eisenman, Gauguin’S Skirt, Elizabeth C. Childs

Pacific Studies

Stephen F. Eisenman, Gauguin’s Skirt. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997. Pp. 232, 110 illus., notes, index. US$29.95 cloth; $24.95 paperback.

Review: Elizabeth C. Childs Washington University St. Louis

Book Review Forum: Fraying Gauguin’S Skirt: Gender, Race, And Liminality In Polynesia, Margaret Jolly

Pacific Studies

Review: Margaret Jolly

Australian National University

Fraying Gauguin’s Skirt: Gender, Race, and Liminality in Polynesia

Toward Historizing Gender In Polynesia: On Vilsoni Hereniko’S Woven Gods And Regional Patterns, Jeannette Marie Mageo

Pacific Studies

This article considers possible parallels between Rotuman and Samoan gender history through Vilsoni Hereniko’s book Woven Gods. Hereniko draws upon the work of Victor Turner to analyze his Rotuman data, arguing that wedding clowns reverse normative social structures. Wedding clowns are expert female practitioners of Rotuman joking discourse. This discourse is not only ritualized on special occasions but is also an everyday informal discourse and, I argue, is in this sense normative; it counterbalances respect discourse, which is likewise practiced in ritual (ceremonial) contexts but also in everyday polite contexts. In the Samoan precolonial sex-gender system, males and females had …

Vol. 22 No. 1 (1999): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

Andrew Strathern And Pamela J. Stewart's Review Of Donald Tuzin's The Cassowary’S Revenge: The Life And Death Of Masculinity In A New Guinea Society, Andrew Strathern, Pamela J. Stewart

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Contributors: Vol 22 No. 1, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Contributors list of Vol. 22 (1999): Pacific Studies Full Issue 1

Books Received And Book Notices, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Book Listing for the Vol 22, No 1 Edition of the Pacific Studies Journal

Nicholas Modjeska's Review Of Maria Lepowsky's Fruit Of The Motherland: Gender In An Egalitarian Society And Raymond C. Kelly's Constructing Inequality: The Fabrication Of A Hierarchy Of Virtue Among The Etoro, Nicholas Modjeska

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Lisette Josephides's Review Of Maria Lepowsky's Fruit Of The Motherland: Gender In An Egalitarian Society And Raymond C. Kelly's Constructing Inequality: The Fabrication Of A Hierarchy Of Virtue Among The Etoro, Lisette Josephides

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Peggy Reeves Sanday's Review Of Maria Lepowsky's Fruit Of The Motherland: Gender In An Egalitarian Society And Raymond C. Kelly's Constructing Inequality: The Fabrication Of A Hierarchy Of Virtue Among The Etoro, Peggy Reeves Sanday

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Marta Rohatynskyj's Review Of Maria Lepowsky's Fruit Of The Motherland: Gender In An Egalitarian Society And Raymond C. Kelly's Constructing Inequality: The Fabrication Of A Hierarchy Of Virtue Among The Etoro, Marta Rohatynskyj

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Marilyn Strathern's Review Of Maria Lepowsky's Fruit Of The Motherland: Gender In An Egalitarian Society And Raymond C. Kelly's Constructing Inequality: The Fabrication Of A Hierarchy Of Virtue Among The Etoro, Marilyn Strathern

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Response: Raymond C. Kelly Rethinking Regimes Of Social Inequality, Raymond C. Kelly

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Response: Maria Lepowsky Gender, Egalitarian Societies, And The Writing Of Pacific Anthropology, Maria Lepowsky

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Netbags Revisited: Cultural Narratives From Papua New Guinea, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew J. Strathern

Pacific Studies

In this article we reconsider materials on netbags from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya, as well as other parts of Melanesia, arguing that understanding of them is best set into a framework of ideas regarding embodiment and processes of trope expansion. Starting from the equation of netbag and womb, we trace the ramifications of this object of material culture and its contemporary significance in a commodifying context. Main emphasis is placed on materials from the Melpa or Mount Hagen area of the Western Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, with comparisons to the cultures of the …

The Woman Who Ran Away: Gender, Power, And Place Among The Atbalmin Of The West Sepik, Papua New Guinea, Eytan Bercovitch

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

From Pollution To Empowerment: Women, Age, And Power Among The Bena Bena Of The Eastern Highlands, Jeanette Dickerson-Putman

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Making The Papua New Guinean Woman: The Extension Of Women’S Initiation Practices To Secondary Education In Central New Ireland, Karen Sykes

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Ben Finney's Review Of Serge Dunis's Ethnologie D’Hawai‘I: “Homme De La Petite Eau, Femme De La Grande Eau”, Ben Finney

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Terence E. Hays's Review Of Maureen Anne Mackenzie's Androgynous Objects: String Bags And Gender In Central New Guinea, Terence E. Hays

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

Peter Gathercole's Review Of Alfred Gell's Wrapping In Images: Tattooing In Polynesia, Peter Gathercole

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.

The Track Of The Triangle: Form And Meaning In The Sepik, Papua New Guinea, Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin

Pacific Studies

No abstract provided.