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Book part
Publication date: 10 August 2017

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Anthropological Considerations of Production, Exchange, Vending and Tourism
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-194-2

Book part
Publication date: 10 August 2017

Rodolfo Maggio

This chapter contributes to drawing Melanesian ethnography out of the exoticizing interest for gift exchange and demand-sharing. Furthermore, it provides an analytical perspective…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter contributes to drawing Melanesian ethnography out of the exoticizing interest for gift exchange and demand-sharing. Furthermore, it provides an analytical perspective from which it is possible to conceptualize the manipulation of gift and commodity logics as mutually compatible frameworks. Rather than seeing them as contradictory, this perspective enables the theorization of shared calculative agencies that are becoming increasingly common in contemporary Melanesia.

Methodology/approach

The chapter draws on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Gilbert Camp, a peri-urban settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, Solomon Islands with a focus on the domestic moral economy of its inhabitants.

Findings

The people of Gilbert Camp are confronting a difficult economic and moral dilemma. On the one hand, they are at constant risk of financial failure because of their general conditions of scarcity. On the other, they face the prospect of disrupting some of their much-valued social relationships because such scarcity prevents them from fulfilling their cultural obligations. In order to avoid both risks, they make use of their financial competence and cultural creativity to set up strategies that save them money and preserve these relationships. Situated at the interface between kinship and market values, these strategies contribute to achieving the kind of ‘good’ life that they see as the correct balance between financial prosperity and morality.

Originality/value

Current negotiations over the meaning of buying, selling and taking are changing the values of contemporary sociality in Honiara, Port Vila, and other Melanesian cities. Tradestores simultaneously supply households with food and money, create a sense of sharing, and limit the demand-sharing and the taking of wantoks. Hence they create the conditions for the resolution of tensions over the incompatibility of values of kinship and market that confront the inhabitants of Melanesian cities. Household tradestores thus constitute a major site of these negotiations, and they provide a unique vantage point from which to look at the moral and economic processes that are leading to the future identity of urban Melanesia.

Details

Anthropological Considerations of Production, Exchange, Vending and Tourism
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-194-2

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 2 December 2019

John Connell

This chapter provides an overview of the South Pacific states from geographic, environmental, cultural, political, economic and demographic perspectives. Topics covered include…

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the South Pacific states from geographic, environmental, cultural, political, economic and demographic perspectives. Topics covered include environments and hazards, climate change, cultural diversity, colonialism and late independence, economic development, population and migration, trade, and aid. The contribution of the most important industries of agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining and tourism are reviewed. In terms of the future, it is argued that the key challenge in the South Pacific states is that of creating sustainable development, alongside employment and growth, and coping with environmental change.

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Integrating Gender in Agricultural Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-056-2

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Article
Publication date: 20 March 2024

Danielle Verlene Christal Watson, Sara N. Amin and Amanda L. Robinson

Discussions about progressive gender reform across Melanesia highlight the need for more gender-inclusive policies and improved conditions for women and girls throughout all…

Abstract

Purpose

Discussions about progressive gender reform across Melanesia highlight the need for more gender-inclusive policies and improved conditions for women and girls throughout all sectors. However, for many of these countries, attempts to address the problems are marred by insufficient resources and low prioritization of the issue and traditional, cultural and religious perspectives about gender and gendered roles. This article discusses how police responses are coordinated to address domestic and family violence (DFV) and provides a critical reflection on both internal responses and the complexities of multi-partner operations beyond urban spaces.

Design/methodology/approach

This article draws on the findings from a stakeholder engagement focus group with 20 participants from four Melanesian countries – Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu – to provide insight into policing innovations in rural contexts.

Findings

There is a need for improved multisector partnerships, increased police presence and greater reliance on indigenous strategies to improve responses to DFV in resource-constrained contexts.

Originality/value

The article provides insight into an under-researched area and makes recommendations for improving responses to DFV in rural areas in small-island developing states.

Details

Policing: An International Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

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Article
Publication date: 17 October 2016

Abraham Hauriasi, Karen Van-Peursem and Howard Davey

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate ethnic identities emerging from the budgetary processes of the Anglican Church of Melanesia (COM) – the Solomon Islands.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate ethnic identities emerging from the budgetary processes of the Anglican Church of Melanesia (COM) – the Solomon Islands.

Design/methodology/approach

An interpretive and case-based methodology is employed. Fieldwork consists of 27 interviews, document analysis and lived-observations. Ethnic identity and concepts of the indigenous culture inform the analysis.

Findings

Findings demonstrate how Church-led practices merge with indigenous processes and how, together, members negotiate their way through this complex budgeting process. A broadened network and community (wantok) is revealed, and through a sympathetic melding of Melanesian and Church tradition, a new ethnic-identity emerges. Issues of parishioners’ isolation, women’s roles and central accountability are not, as yet, fully integrated into this emerging identity.

Research limitations/implications

There may be value in prioritising “people” over “timelines”, “discussion” over “deadlines” and in respecting local traditions in order to nurture the foundation for new identities. Also, and as evidenced, “nationhood” should not be assumed to be a powerful force in defining ethnic identity.

Practical implications

The value of respecting the complex interaction between tribal tradition and Church values by those in power is revealed.

Social implications

“Ethnic identity” is revealed as a complex notion in the Solomon Islands Anglican COM.

Originality/value

A long-isolated culture’s construction of self-identity in the context of the COM is revealed.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 29 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 2 December 2019

Michelle Carnegie and Lila Singh-Peterson

This chapter situates the South Pacific region’s engagement in progressing gender equality and women’s empowerment within broader gender and development (GAD) debates. It explores…

Abstract

This chapter situates the South Pacific region’s engagement in progressing gender equality and women’s empowerment within broader gender and development (GAD) debates. It explores the international ‘gender agenda’ and how its associated frameworks, platforms, policies and metrics have diffused throughout the South Pacific. Limited progress in achieving gender equality and empowerment goals has been made, globally and regionally, with considerable challenges yet to be overcome. Complementing the book’s focus on the integration of gender into agricultural research and development projects, the chapter reviews rural women’s access to income and land in the South Pacific, and their contributions to agricultural production and marketing.

Details

Integrating Gender in Agricultural Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-056-2

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Abstract

Details

Government and Public Policy in the Pacific Islands
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-616-8

Book part
Publication date: 11 November 2020

Graham Hassall

Abstract

Details

Government and Public Policy in the Pacific Islands
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-616-8

Book part
Publication date: 2 May 2013

Mark S. Mosko

Purpose – To provide an update on recent intensifications of commoditization among the North (Amoamo) Mekeo (Central Province, PNG) and to assess the extent to which in this…

Abstract

Purpose – To provide an update on recent intensifications of commoditization among the North (Amoamo) Mekeo (Central Province, PNG) and to assess the extent to which in this context contemporary villagers qualify as “dividuals,” “individuals,” or “possessive individuals.”Methodology/approach – The empirical data presented in this chapter were collected by means of participant observation techniques conducted over a 40-year period. Here those materials are analyzed through a juxtaposition of the “partible” or “dividual” type of personhood foregrounded in the “New Melanesian Ethnography” (Strathern, 1988; Wagner, 1991) and models of the “individual” and “possessive individual” in Macpherson’s (1962) formulation of “possessive market societies.”Findings – Contrary to the canonical assumptions of “individualism” and “possessive individualism” which underpin most social-scientific theories of modernization, globalization, development, etc. in the non-Western world, North Mekeo villagers’ most recent intensive post-contact engagements with capitalism have tended to reproduce indigenous “dividual” patterns of partible personhood and sociality which incorporate seemingly “individualist” practices as momentary parts of overall, total “dividual” persons and processes.Research implications – Explanations of the globalizing spread of capitalism among non-Western peoples must pay heed to indigenous notions of personhood agency if they are to avoid ethnocentric distortions arising from presuppositions of the ubiquity of Western notions of individualism.Originality/value of chapter – This chapter demonstrates the analytical benefits of the New Melanesian Ethnography – particularly its key notion of partible personhood – and the advantage of focused long-term ethnographic fieldwork in accounting for processes of social change.

Details

Engaging with Capitalism: Cases from Oceania
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-542-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 June 2020

Emma Gilberthorpe

Global/national policy planning is guided by economic methods and predictions of growth, where indicators of success are measured according to a dominant view of progress and…

Abstract

Global/national policy planning is guided by economic methods and predictions of growth, where indicators of success are measured according to a dominant view of progress and sustainable development. Yet, despite widespread ratification of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Peoples remain unrepresented in this dominant view. The structural and historical forces informing global policy thus inadvertently produce a pathway of development that is characterized by political, economic, and social exclusion where Indigenous Peoples’ agency, heritage, and culture remain marginalized. I argue that socio-cultural nuance (“the complete story”) is critical to policy planning if we are to honor the principal aim of the Sustainable Development Goals – “leave no-one behind”. This and other policy frameworks need an approach that is neither framed by Eurocentric objectives nor bound by measurable indicators. This requires consideration of Indigenous Worldviews in a way that mediates diverse social, economic, and political factors. In this chapter, I examine the limitations in current policy consultation practice, with a specific focus on the extractive industries sector, and examine the ways in which engagement with Indigenous Peoples’ “complete story” might inform policy in the pursuit of a sustainable development that leaves no-one behind and creates a bridge between dominant and marginalized forms of knowledge.

Details

Anthropological Enquiries into Policy, Debt, Business, and Capitalism
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-659-4

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