Indigenous Studies Commons^™

Review: Being Political: Leadership And Democracy In The Pacific Islands, Lamont Lindstrom

Pacific Studies

Jack Corbett. Being Political: Leadership and Democracy in the Pacific Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015. Pp. xii, 243. ISBN 978-0-8248-4107-7. US$54.00 hardcover. Notes. Bibliography.

Reviewed by Lamont Lindstrom, University of Tulsa

Hero, Savage, Or Equal? Representations Of The Moral Personhood Of Pacific Islanders In Hollywood Movies, David Lipset

Pacific Studies

This essay explores the theme of moral agency in cinematic representations of Pacific Islanders. Drawing on anthropological theories, the essay argues that moral personhood is a socially conferred status. Hollywood films often strip Pacific Islanders of moral agency, portraying them as passive or incapable of ethical discernment, while reserving such agency for Western characters. This cinematic imbalance is framed as a form of cultural dispossession and colonial narrative control. The essay thus critiques the broader implications of how moral accountability and personhood are distributed across cultural lines in film.

Vol. 38 No. 3 (2015): 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 …

Fiji’S Electoral Strategies: A Comparative Perspective, Sanjay Ramesh

Pacific Studies

This article analyzes Fiji’s electoral projects by comparing Fiji’s electoral experiences with those of South Africa, Namibia, Guyana, and Suriname. I argue that Fiji’s electoral project of the 1990s was fraught with difficulty because it failed to reconcile competing communal and reformist positions within the democratic framework established by the 1997 Fiji Constitution. As a result, the electoral project of the 1990s failed, resulting in further coups in 2000 and 2006, with the political designers reframing the political agenda and adopting a proportional system of governance to promote national identity and interethnic collaboration following the 2006 coup. However, I contend …

Putting Kanak To Work: Kanak And The Colonial Labor System In New Caledonia, Adrian Muckle

Pacific Studies

Examining the different categories of “native labor” established in New Caledonia, from the 1870s to the 1940s, this article assesses the extent to which Kanak labor was mobilized en masse for colonial development. It outlines the shift from a perception of Kanak labor as of little value (1880s–1910s) to an awareness of its potential and the need to effectively harness it for colonial interests (1920s–1940s). The mobilization of Kanak labor steadily increased in the 1920s and 1930s and reached an unprecedented level during World War II. This overview and assessment provides a corrective to the colonial discourse of Kanak as …

The Archaeology Of Hassanamesit Woods: The Sarah Burnee/Sarah Boston Farmstead, Stephen Mrozowski, Heather Law Pezzarossi, Dennis Piechota, Heather Trigg, John M. Steinberg, Guido Pezzarossi, Joseph Bagley, Jessica Rymer, Jerry Warner

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

Between 2003 and 2013 the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston conducted an intensive investigation of the Sarah Burnee/Sarah Boston Farmstead on Keith Hill in Grafton, Massachusetts. The project employed a collaborative method that involved working closely with the Town of Grafton, through the Hassanmesit Woods Management Committee, and the Nipmuc Nation, the state recognized government of the Nipmuc people. Yearly excavation and research plans were decided through consultation with both the Nipmuc Tribal Council, their designated representative, Dr. D. Rae Gould, and the Hassanamesit Woods Management Committee. Dr. Gould also played a continuous and …

‘Reclamation Road’: A Microhistory Of Massacre Memory In Clear Lake, California, Jeremiah J. Garsha

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article is a microhistory of not only the massacre of the indigenous Pomo people in Clear Lake, California, but also the memorialization of this event. It is an examination of two plaques marking the site of the Bloody Island massacre, exploring how memorial representations produce and silence historical memory of genocide under emerging and shifting historical narratives. A 1942 plaque is contextualized to show the co-option of the Pomo and massacre memory by an Anglo-American organization dedicated to settler memory. A 2005 plaque is read as a decentering of this narrative, guiding the viewer through a new hierarchy of …

From Romance To Reality: Images Of Pacific Islanders Across Time And Space, Nancy Lutkehaus, Judith Schachter

Pacific Studies

This article examines the enduring legacy and evolving dynamics of Western representations of the Pacific and its peoples, from early European voyages to contemporary media. This issue marks a shift in disciplinary focus, with anthropologists contributing to a field previously dominated by literary and cultural historians. Through analyses of visual culture, media, and transoceanic connections, the collection interrogates the commodification of culture and the hegemonic influence of Western narratives, while also illuminating the creative and critical responses of Pacific communities navigating these representations in a globalized world.

Jack London’S Pacific Voyage Of Transformation: An Anthropologist Looks At The Cruise Of The Snark (1911), Nancy Lutkehaus

Pacific Studies

This article examines the transformative impact of Jack London’s Pacific voyage aboard the Snark on his views of race and colonialism. Through encounters with both Pacific Islanders and white colonial settlers—missionaries, labor recruiters, and self-styled expatriates—London’s writings reveal a shift in his racial perceptions and self-representation. The Snark voyage played a pivotal role in reshaping London’s literary and ideological engagement with the Pacific and its peoples.

Romanticism And Reality On The Gc: Transnational Māori On The Gold Coast, Sarina Pearson

Pacific Studies

This essay examines the controversy surrounding The GC, a New Zealand reality television series that follows young Māori living on Australia’s Gold Coast, and the cultural debates it sparked about Māori identity, representation, and modernity. By analyzing the show’s reception and its challenge to dominant visual and cultural narratives, the essay explores how primitivism continues to shape public discourse and how Māori media productions can disrupt and redefine the boundaries of indigenous representation.

Representations Of Pacific Islander Identity: Ours And Theirs, Kirsten Mcgavin

Pacific Studies

This article explores how Pacific Islander identities—particularly within diasporic communities in Australia—are shaped through the interplay between stereotypical media portrayals and lived cultural realities. While Western tourism and media have long perpetuated romanticized images of Pacific “paradise,” these depictions often obscure the diversity and complexity of actual Island life. Through case studies—including climate change rallies, community gatherings, and online forums—the article examines how Islanders respond to, resist, and sometimes repurpose outsider stereotypes to articulate self-representations that are both grounded and adaptive. The study highlights the dynamic processes of identity formation in the Pacific diaspora and the ongoing negotiation between authenticity …

Representation As Disaster: Mapping Islands, Climate Change, And Displacement In Oceania, Wolfgang Kempf

Pacific Studies

This study critically examines how Pacific islands and island states are represented at the intersection of global media and popular scientific communication in the context of climate change and sea-level rise. This work contributes to broader scholarship on the media’s role in shaping public understanding of climate change and highlights the need for more accurate, context-sensitive portrayals of island futures.

Anthropophagi In New-York And Other Voyagers, Maria Lepowsky

Pacific Studies

This chapter continues the exploration of maritime cultures of contact by following the post-shipwreck adventures of voyagers in the Pacific in the nineteenth century. The chapter also examines the literary and cultural afterlives of Pacific travel narratives, particularly those of Benjamin Morrell and Thomas Jacobs, whose depictions of islanders influenced canonical works by Poe and Melville. These narratives reveal the contradictory perceptions American sailors held of Pacific peoples—ranging from “cannibal savages” to noble and intelligent individuals—and the enduring tropes of the “noble savage” and “civilized native.” By tracing these voyages and representations, the chapter highlights the early emergence of a …

Imagining The Marshall Islands, Laurence M. Carucci

Pacific Studies

As anthropologists have developed a more critical eye, earlier assumptions about the privileged position of anthropological texts have been dismissed as elitist, self-serving, and paternalistic. Perhaps James Clifford was the first to recognize the limitations of such possessiveness toward these imagined others, but his call for a broader view has been taken up by many in the field. Here, I consider the images of three interlopers, none of them anthropologists, as they each, in separate historical contexts and different positional circumstances, come to imagine Marshall Islanders as certain types of others. A consideration of these accounts reveals a good deal …

Oh, Those Poor Islanders And Threats To An Idyllic Life On A Beautiful Island!, Juliana Flinn

Pacific Studies

This essay examines the representation of Pollap, a Micronesian atoll, in popular media and internet sources, highlighting the contrast between anthropological perspectives and public portrayals. While scholars emphasize indigenous agency and the adaptive use of external influences, popular media—ranging from Peace Corps blogs to disaster reports—often depict islanders through romanticized or victimized lenses. These portrayals reflect more about Western cultural fantasies and assumptions than about the lived realities of Pollapese people. Romantic narratives emphasize idyllic simplicity and harmony with nature, while disaster coverage frames islanders as helpless and dependent on external aid. Notably absent are accounts of local responses or …

Vol. 38 No. 1/2 (2015): 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 …

From Romance To Reality: An Epilogue, Niko Besnier

Pacific Studies

This epilogue reflects on the political nature of representation, particularly in the context of the Pacific Islands, where images and narratives have long been shaped by colonial encounters and global media. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples—from Enlightenment-era voyages to modern climate change discourse—the essay highlights how Pacific Islanders have both been subjects of external representations and active participants in shaping their own identities.

Vol. 38 No. 1/2 (2015): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 38, No 1/2-Aug 2015 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Reclaiming Paradise: Cinema And Hawaiian Nationhood, Judith Schachter

Pacific Studies

This essay explores the enduring power of the “paradise” trope in cinematic portrayals of Hawai‘i and its evolving role in articulating Native Hawaiian nationhood. While Western media has long romanticized Hawai‘i through idyllic imagery of natural beauty and sensuality, contemporary indigenous filmmakers have begun to reclaim and repurpose these visual conventions. Rather than marking a shift from fantasy to realism, these films strategically reframe romantic imagery to assert cultural autonomy, political sovereignty, and a renewed relationship to the land (‘āina). Through analysis of both outsider and insider productions, the essay reveals how visual narratives critique colonial histories and resist hegemonic …

From Colonial Pomp To Tourism Reality: Commodification And Cannibalization Of The Fijian Firewalking Ceremony, Guido Carlo Pigliasco

Pacific Studies

In 1935 the rite [firewalking] was performed before two members of the British Medical Association. The eminent doctors examined the men carefully before and after the ceremony. . . . The men of Mbengga [sic], not knowing of these learned disputations, unconcernedly carry on the strange custom of their ancestors (Luis Marden, National Geographic, October 1958: 560–61).

The Fijians had another way of disposing of the bodies. They ate them. . . . This was a culture devoted to killing, and when there wasn’t an enemy around to meet their needs, chiefs took to killing the commoners among them …

Talking Back, With Reawakened Voices: Analyzing The Potential For Indigenous California Languages Coursework At California Polytechnic State University, Logan Cooper

Ethnic Studies

The legacy of colonialism in the United States, including genocidal practices and cultural assimilation, has left Indigenous languages endangered. Native peoples, scholars, and activists have been working to revive and heal the languages of America’s first peoples, and the cultures those languages speak to, yet more work remains in the field of language revitalization. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo currently does not offer any course specifically teaching or discussing Indigenous languages, even those of the Chumash people who know the San Luis Obispo area as their ancestral homelands.

By synthesizing revitalization and Indigenous activist literature with the narratives …

Native Interactions And Economic Exchange: A Re-Evaluation Of Plymouth Colony Collections, Kellie J. Bowers

Graduate Masters Theses

This research furthers our understanding of colonial-Native relations by identifying and analyzing artifacts that indicate interaction between Native Americans and English settlers in Plymouth Colony archaeological collections. This project explores the nature of these interactions, exposing material culture's role in both social and economic exchanges. Selected 17th-century collections were excavated in modern Plymouth, Massachusetts, and nearby Marshfield and Kingston. My examination includes identifying materials exchanged between the Wampanoag and English settler groups in archaeological collections through scholarly literature and comparative 17th-century sites. This project draws on the documentary resources to provide contextualized insights on the relationships formed by and around …

Study Of Prestige And Resource Control Using Fish Remains From Cathlapotle, A Plankhouse Village On The Lower Columbia River, J. Shoshana Rosenberg

Dissertations and Theses

Social inequality is a trademark of Northwest Coast native societies, and the relationship between social prestige and resource control, particularly resource ownership, is an important research issue on the Northwest Coast. Faunal remains are one potential but as yet underutilized path for examining this relationship. My thesis work takes on this approach through the analysis of fish remains from the Cathlapotle archaeological site (45CL1). Cathlapotle is a large Chinookan village site located on the Lower Columbia River that was extensively excavated in the 1990s. Previous work has established prestige distinctions between houses and house compartments, making it possible to examine …

The Rock Abides, Mike James

Indian Head Rock Project

Article published by Mike James of the Ashland Daily Independent on March 30, 2015 on the storage of the Indian Head Rock at the Greenup County garage.

The House Of Our Ancestors: New Research On The Prehistory Of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, A.D. 800–1200, Carrie Heitman

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In a paper honoring the career of archaeologist Gwinn Vivian presented at the Society for American Archaeology 70th annual meeting, Toll and others (2005) discussed the still often-overlooked role of small house sites in Chacoan prehistory. They pointed out that many of the attributes we reserve for the category of “great house” are in fact present at some small house sites and that both the diversity and overlapping characteristics across this dichotomy require greater attention if we are to understand “how Chaco worked.” In this chapter, I present contextual data from 12 house assemblages through a comparative theoretical and ethnographic …

Revisiting The Nelson Site: Recent Archeological Investigations And Material Analysis, Jason Reichel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Nelson Site (21BE24) is situated on a low terrace along the southern boundary of the Blue Earth River, approximately 2 miles west of the city of Mankato, Minnesota (Appendix A, Figures 1 and 2). Initial survey of the site in 1973 identified the site as a single component Terminal Woodland habitation site associated with cultural entities centered in the Mississippi River Valley of Iowa and Wisconsin. However, subsequent analysis and additional archaeological investigations conducted in 2011 and 2013 identified additional components of the site and recognized variations in decorative elements from pottery recovered from previous surveys, which differed from …

The Relevance Of Maize Pollen For Assessing The Extent Of Maize Production In Chaco Canyon, Carrie C. Heitman, Phil R. Geib

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Opinion is hardly unanimous, but many authors endorse the idea that Chaco Canyon is and was a marginal place for growing corn (Zea mays), a chief source of food energy for Puebloan groups in the Southwest. Poor soils with “toxic” levels of salts, inadequate and unpredictable precipitation, and a short growing season have all been identified as contributing to the agricultural marginality of the place (Benson 2011a; Bryan 1954; Force et al. 2002; Judd 1954:59–61). Benson has been the most vocal proponent of this view of late, and his research has culminated in the conclusion that “the San Juan Basin, …

Thinking Outside The (Archival) Box: Innovative Uses Of Jules Henry’S Field Notes, Miranda Rectenwald

WashU Libraries Presentations

This poster presents a case study of how archived documents provide multi-faceted, dynamic opportunity for teaching and learning in both academia and indigenous communities. Anthropologist Jules Henry compiled extensive language and cultural field notes in the 1930s while living among the Xokleng Laklãnõ (Brazil) and Pilaga (Argentina) communities. Until recently, these documents and photographs archived at Washington University in St. Louis were seldom used. However, by starting a collaborative digital project with Unicamp State University (São Paulo, Brazil) a number of innovative uses have emerged. Examples include: The Unicamp Linguistics Department is working with the Xokleng Laklãnõ to turn the …

Saffron Cod (Eleginus Gracilis) In North Pacific Archaeology, Megan A. Partlow, Eric Munk

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) is a marine species often found in shallow, brackish water in the Bering Sea, although it can occur as far southeast as Sitka, Alaska. Recently, we identified saffron cod remains in two ca. 500-year-old Afognak Island midden assemblages from the Kodiak Archipelago. We developed regression formulae to relate bone measurements to total length using thirty-five modern saffron cod specimens. The archaeological saffron cod remains appear to be from mature adults, measuring 22–45 cm in total length, and likely caught from shore during spawning. Saffron cod may have been an important winter resource for Alutiiq people living …

My Family, My Identity: An Ethnohistorical Exploration Of A Multiethnic Family, Sarah Oosahwee-Voss

All Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on family identity in a time when multiethnic couples are increasing in population. How will this populace choose to define who they are? The purpose of this thesis is to focus on a multiethnic family, specifically one with different tribal heritages, and explore how their identity was formed over time and maintained through various times in their history. Multiple ethnographic methods were utilized in tandem to collect the information. A framework was then created to determine the main themes found throughout the history and information compiled in order to define the core values within their family identity. …