Indigenous Studies Commons^™

Adopting Change: Relational Flexibility As Vice And Virtue On Mota Island, Vanuatu, Thorgeir Storesund Kolshus

Pacific Studies

On the island of Mota in the Banks Islands, children and adults frequently have their matrilineal and even matrimoiety affiliation, and consequently kin relations, altered and multiplied through various forms of adoption. Most of the 850 Motese count themselves as belonging to several kin groups. This creates personalized kin inventories for each individual. Consequently, an element of choice concerning which relation to emphasize is intrinsic to the Motese kinship system. In this paper, some of the reasons and motivations for these choices are outlined. The traditional flexibility of social relations, with their associated transfer of rights and obligations, also proves …

Preface, Mac Marshall

Pacific Studies

This article is a preface to this special issue on fosterage and adoption.

Appalachia’S Borderland Brokers: The Intersection Of Kinship, Diplomacy, And Trade On The Trans-Montane Backcountry, 1600-1800, Kevin T. Barksdale

History Faculty Research

This paper and accompanying historical argument builds upon the presentation I made at last year’s Ohio Valley History Conference held at Western Kentucky University. In that presentation, I argued that preindustrial Appalachia was a complex and dynamic borderland region in which disparate Amerindian groups and Euroamericans engaged in a wide-range of cultural, political, economic, and familial interactions. I challenged the Turnerian frontier model that characterized the North American backcountry as a steadily retreating “fall line” separating the savagery of Amerindian existence and the epidemic civility of Anglo-America. On the Turnerian frontier, Anglo-American culture washed over the Appalachian and Native American …

Changing Concepts Of Chief And Hierarchy On A Polynesian Outlier, William W. Donner

Pacific Studies

Sikaiana is a Polynesian society with a legend of a powerful, centralized chief or aliki. However, Sikaiana is also a very egalitarian society, and it has resisted efforts by Protectorate and national government administrators to establish a local chief. This article examines the legendary and modern history of Sikaiana chiefs to show how power and authority became and remained decentralized. The ideology of Sikaiana egalitarianism is supported by familiarity and face-to-face experience with personally known others. This egalitarianism faces new challenges as Sikaiana society both differentiates internally and becomes incorporated into larger, regional, and international social systems. There is …

Ethnic Representations And Social Integration Of Contemporary French Migrants In Tahiti, French Polynesia, Laura Schuft

Pacific Studies

This study analyzes the discourse on social integration and ethnic representations of French civil servants working short and long term in Tahiti, French Polynesia. Appointed to positions in education, public administration, and law and order by the mainland authority, the attitudes and social interactions of this community compose a dynamic element of ethnic identity formation in Tahiti. Habitually the literary and academic voice on Tahitian culture and history, the discourse of this dominant socioeconomic category is herein redefined as the object of sociological study.

Analysis reveals three principal ideal-type attitudes toward ethnic representations and relations, each positioned differently around reactions …

Book Review Forum: Tree Leaf Talk: A Heideggerian Anthropology By James F. Weiner, Andrew Moutu

Pacific Studies

Reviewed by Andrew Moutu, University of Cambridge.

James F. Weiner’s Tree Leaf Talk: A Heideggerian Anthropology explores the metaphor of a “firebreak” as a form of ethnographic writing that resists the unchecked spread of semantic associations and theoretical assumptions. Drawing on the Foi concept of irisae-medobora—a metaphorical, concealing speech used by high-status men in Papua New Guinea—Weiner parallels this with Heidegger’s Holzwege, suggesting that concealment can be a productive anthropological strategy. The book critiques the aestheticization of social relations and the uncritical embrace of non-Western media as ethnographic tools, arguing that social constructionism, rooted in Western metaphysics, may …

Vol. 31 No. 1 (2008): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies Brigham Young University–HawaiʻI

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 31, No 1-March 2008 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Japan's Industrial Development Of A U.S. Territory: Guam, 1941-1944, Wakako Higuchi

Pacific Studies

Guam's long-unsettled wartime reparations act-now sitting in the U.S. House of Representatives-concerns, among other things, forced-labor mobilization by the Japanese military. This issue has not been systematically studied from written sources of the war years. Based on official documents, this article examines the Japanese Navy's .industrial development policies and activities on Guam during the Pacific War, which inevitably involved forced labor. This article substantiates the Japanese Navy's attempt at economic exploitation and its failure, considering Guam's two characteristic features: its status as a former U.S. territory and its location in Japan's Mariana Islands .. Under the so-called "organic integration" policy, …

Books Noted: Recent Pacific Island Publications: Selected Acquisitions, January 2006-June 2006, Riley Moffat

Pacific Studies

This list of significant publications relating to the Pacific Islands was selected from new acquisitions lists received from Brigham Young University Hawai'i, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, University of Auckland, East-West Center, University of South Pacific, National Library of Australia, Melanesian Studies Resource Center, Center for Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Nijmegen, University of California San Diego, Secretariat of the Pacific Community Library, Center for South Pacific Studies, University of New South Wales, Macmillan Brown Library at University of Canterbury, and the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau's Center for the Pacific Development Training. Other libraries …

Books Noted: Recent Pacific Island Publications: Selected Acquisitions, July 2006-May 2007, Riley Moffat

Pacific Studies

THIS Iist of significant publications relating to the Pacific Islands was selected from new acquisitions lists received from Brigham Young University Hawai'i, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, University of Auckland, East-West Center, University of South Pacific, National Library of Australia, Melanesian Studies Resource Center, Center for Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Nijmegen, University of California San Diego, Secretariat of the Pacific Community Library, Center for South Pacific Studies, University of New South Wales, Macmillan Brown Library at University of Canterbury, and the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau's Center for the Pacific Development Training. Other libraries …

Faiva Fakaouli: The Tongan Performance Art Of Humor, 'Okusitino Māhina

Pacific Studies

This essay will critically examine faiva fakaoli, literally translated as "the art of funny things, in a number of separate but connected unique and universal contexts. I wish to make clear right from the outset that this essay is not an exercise in theoretically and practically reviewing the existing literature on humor, nor an attempt to make a comprehensive examination of what humor is, i.e., its form and content, nor, for that matter, what humor does, i.e., its social function.' While the theoretical and practical, ontological; and epistemological, or qualitative and utilitarian questions are extremely important, my …

Mangaia In The Colonial World, 1863-1899, Michael Reilly

Pacific Studies

This paper analyzes letters written between 1863 and l899 from the island of Mangaia in the Cook Islands. Collectively, they provide insights into how the people of Mangaia managed their relationships with the outside world, especially with British authorities in the Pacific. These letters are discussed in conjunction with other documents from the colonial archives in order to achieve a more balanced understanding of the way Mangaians acted upon the cultural values inherited from their ancestors in the context of an increasing assertion of foreign control over their island. These vernacular letters articulate a long-hidden subaltern history of Mangaia.

Vol. 31 No. 1 (2008): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies Brigham Young University–HawaiʻI

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, …

Vol. 30, No. 3/4 (2007): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies Brigham Young University–HawaiʻI

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, …

Grandparenting Styles In An Urban/Rural Borderland In New Zealand, Sally Keeling

Pacific Studies

This paper on grandparenting styles draws on ethnographic interviews with old-old (80 and older) Anglo-Europeans living in a small-town community in New Zealand. The interviews were collected as part of the social content of a lon tudinal study of the epidemiology of a ng in an urban/rural borderland setting. Analyses indicate that grandparent status and role are both central to and contingent upon how old-old people negotiate and sustain independence and autonomy in the context of family and friendship networks. Diversity is examined using a typology developed from research on American Indian grandparents in an urban/rural situation as a framework, …

Changing Contexts For Grandparent Adoption On Raivavae, French Polynesia, Jeanette L. Dickerson-Putnam

Pacific Studies

This paper examines change in grandparent adoption and care of grandchildren on the Austral island of Raivavae in French Polynesia. The focus is on how Raivavaens have utilized the flexible, negotiable, and contingent institution of grandparent adoption as a strategy for coping with changing global/local linkages, out-migration for employment, and introduction of nonindigenous institutions and processes. The inherent flexibility of the adoptive relationship is apparently enabling Raivavaens to mold it in ways that serve a new set of needs and circumstances, most of which reside with the grandchild's parents rather than the grandparents. Grandparents appear to have extended and otherwise …

Introduction: The Practice And Prospects Of Grandparenting In The Pacific, Dorothy Ayers Counts

Pacific Studies

The contributors to this special issue represent the orientations and approaches of several social science disciplines and are variously involved in interdisci­ plina1y endeavors. However, anthropology is the primary discipline and ethno­ graphy a shared methodology. It is a main task of any ethnography to make the exotic familiar and to treat the familiar as though it were exotic. The papers in this special issue achieve this for grandparenthood in the Pacific. The familiar concept of grandparenthood is shown to have multiple meanings in close examinations of how the status is achieved, for example, what it means for a person's …

Grandparenting Among The Chamorros Of Guam, Vicki Torsch

Pacific Studies

For the Chamorros of Guam, contemporary grandparenting reflects the cultural tension between the forces struggling for continuity with cherished traditions and values centered on caring and sharing, and those requiring adaptation, cultural change, and expanding lifestyle choices. Descriptions and analyses draw on data collected in 60 life-history inte1views and participant observation research. The paper focuses on an emerging duality in grandparenting styles and contrasts the gendered perspectives on grandparenting roles and attitudes. The diversity of styles is embedded in personalities, gender, educational level, and lifestyle choices, and reflects different responses to dramatic change in sociocultural and economic conditions.

Grandmothering And Social Old Age: Aotearoa New Zealand Variations On A Universal Theme, M. Jocelyn Armstrong

Pacific Studies

This paper explores change in definition and relevance of the grandparenting role in a population of young-old (ages sixty-five to eighty) women in urban New Zealand, and compares the experience of European and Maori women. I focus on how becoming and being a grandparent is configured into perceptions of social old age and seniority. New Zealand women of both ethnic groups recognize becoming a grandmother as still commonly considered a key marker of social old age by society at large. Differences are evident in ideas about how the role contributes to today's self-definitions. In women's own definitions, being a grandmother …

Continuities And Changes In Marshallese Grandparenting, Laurence Marshall Carucci

Pacific Studies

For Marshallese, grandparents do not exist as independent types of kin. A grandparent is a partner in a reciprocal grandparent/grandchild relationship. The relationship is not grounded in either biology or unchanging social status; rather, it is constructed out of practical activities as members of a shared community. Grandparents who actively earn respect in their relationships with others are recognized collectively as senior grandparents of the community or communal grandparents. This paper examines continuities and changes in the activities and social significance of grandparents of the community across three decades and four different social settings. The paper focuses on how shifting …

In My Nana's House: Grandparent Households In Fiji, Sela Panapasa

Pacific Studies

This paper uses a combination of household census data and case material to examine change in grandparent status and role in Fiji in the context of develop­ ment and the impacts of modernization and population aging. On one hand, there is more need and pressure for grandparents to be caregivers of grand­ children and sources of stability and continuity within family and home. On the other, there are the increased costs associated with greater longevity among the grandparent generation, such as care of a frail and dependent grandparent. Social exchange theory is used to compare these costs and benefits across …

Continuing To Be A Mother: Grandmothering On Pollap, Juliana Flinn

Pacific Studies

Perspectives from human evolution and life cycle development frame this paper on grandmothering in a Micronesian setting. On Pollap Atoll in the Central Caroline Islands, being a grandmother is part of a developmental process that involves aging and a changing parental role. Being an older woman is interwoven with being a grandmother in much the same way as being an adult woman is interwoven with being a mother. Much of the work of a grandmother toward grandchildren involves continuing responsibilities to one's adult child. Today's grandmothers continue to carry out these responsibilities in the context of adaptation to migration. The …

Guest Editors' Preface: Special Issue Negotiating Grandparenting: Styles And Strategies In A Changing Pacific, M. Jocelyn Armstrong, Juliana Flinn

Pacific Studies

This preface introduces a collection of anthropological studies that explore grandparenting practices in Pacific societies, situating them within the global context of population aging and evolving family dynamics. As longevity increases worldwide, grandparenting has gained prominence across disciplines and regions. This volume highlights how cultural values, historical contexts, and contemporary changes—such as shifts in education, economy, migration, and family structure—shape the roles and meanings of grandparents in Pacific communities. Three key themes emerge: the relationship between grandparenting and elder status, the diverse styles of grandparenting influenced by identity factors like gender and ethnicity, and grandparenting as an adaptive strategy in …

Epilogue: A New Look At Grandparenting, Françoise Douaire-Marsaudon, Alan Howard

Pacific Studies

The papers in this special issue of Pacific Studies signal a growing interest in grandparents and the roles that they play in times of profound social, cultural, and demographic change. In this Epilogue we attempt to distill from the preceding seven essays' themes that reflect the various ways in which grand­ parenthood is adapting to these conditions in selected Pacific Islands. The challenge, as we see it, is to establish how senior citizens, including grandparents and great-grandparents, are embedded in a set of social relationships, and then to determine which variables-lineage and household structures, economic contributions, proximity, activities participated in, …

Books Noted: Recent Pacific Island Publications: Selected Acquisitions, December 2003-May 2004, Riley M. Moffat

Pacific Studies

THIS LIST of significant publications relating to the Pacific Islands was selected from new acquisitions lists received from Brigham Young University Hawai'i, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, University of Auckland, East-West Center, University of South Pacific, National Library of Australia, Melanesian Studies Resource Center, University of California San Diego, Secretariat of the Pacific Community Library, and the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau's Center for the Pacific Development Training. Other libraries are invited to send contributions to the Books Noted Editor for future issues. Listings reflect the extent of information provided by each institution.

Books Noted: Recent Pacific Island Publications: Selected Acquisitions, January 2005-June 2005, Riley M. Moffat

Pacific Studies

THIS LIST of significant publications relating to the Pacific Islands was selected from new acquisitions lists received from Brigham Young University Hawai'i, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, University of Auckland, East-West Center, University of the South Pacific, National Library of Australia, Melanesian Studies Resource Center, Center for Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Nijmegen, University of California-San Diego, Secretariat of the Pacific Community Library, Center for South Pacific Studies, University of New South Wales, and the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau's Center for the Pacific Development Training. Other libraries are invited to send contributions to the …

Vol. 30, No. 3/4 (Sept/Dec 2007): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies Brigham Young University–HawaiʻI

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 30, No 3/4-Sept/Dec 2007 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Effects Report: Potential Transfer Of Garrison Project Lands Within The Fort Berthold Reservation Boundaries Pursuant To The Fort Berthold Mineral Restoration Act, United States Army Corps Of Engineers, Omaha District, Nebraska

US Government Documents Related to Indigenous Nations

This report, dated April 2008, from the United States (US) Army Corps of Engineers (Omaha District, Nebraska) explains the potential transfer of unused lands from the Garrison Dam Project to the Three Affiliated Tribes of Fort Berthold Reservation. The land transfer proposed to return a portion of land out of the 153,000 acres taken by the US Government for the construction of the Garrison Dam. The authority of this transfer is granted by the Fort Berthold Mineral Restoration Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-602). This report is broken into six sections: Introduction, Authority, Criteria, Proposed Determination, Determination, and Conclusion. An …

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 8: Religious Life At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 8.

Written documents indicate that the Jesuit priests settled among neighboring Native American groups and were successful at creating some converts at the St. Joseph mission.

Archaeology, History And Activities At Fort St. Joseph 7: Public Archaeology At Fort St. Joseph, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 7.

The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project practices community service learning.

One of the main goals of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project is to incorporate the local community in all aspects of the archaeological enterprise in the investigation.