Pacific Realities

Laurent Dousset is Professor at the EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences) and member of the CREDO (Centre for Research and Documentation on Oceania, Marseilles). His publications include Assimilating Identities: Social Networks and the Diffusion of Sections (Oceania Monographs, 2005), The Scope of Anthropology (with S. Tcherkézoff, Berghahn 2012).

“Even if one is not always in agreement with the authors’ analyses, the contributions in this collection are so explicitly and empirically argued, that it furthers novel thinking. For that achievement alone this volume is a little gem, it is full of interesting case material, and at the same time it encourages new ways of thinking about Pacific realities.” • Anthropos“The edited book is a collaborative effort by independent researchers who each respectively crafts their case study to elucidate ‘the possibilities for resilience and for loss, abandonment, and dramatic change,’ thereby illuminating the ‘interaction between a past that can be imagined as holistic and virtuous and an envisaged future that fulfills contemporary desires.’ This ‘constant flux’ calls for a vision beyond a simplistic judgment of cultural loss and cultural continuity. As an Oceanic academic concerned with the self-determination and well-being of the locals, I appreciate the insight towards the delicate and nuanced stance that the authors suggest we, as researchers, take, when we face each case in its specific context.” • Pacific Affairs
“…an important contribution to a better understanding of life worlds in Oceania (with a slight overrepresentation of Melanesia). Although this volume is a poignant reminder of the challenges indigenous people face in the current global condition, it also aptly demonstrates the agency of these social actors to resist these challenges and act resiliently. Presumably, Pacific Realities will mainly draw attention from scholars interested in Oceania. However, it should be read well beyond this limited circle because it offers rich ethnographic insights and a handy theoretical framework to better grasp contemporary island societies and cultures and their respective place in the world today.” • Island Studies Journal

• List of illustrationsIntroduction: Resistance and ResilienceLaurent Dousset and Mélissa NayralChapter 1. A Story in and on Signs: Making Resistance and Acquiescence Legible as Forms of ResilienceYasmine MusharbashChapter 2. Global Models and Local Management of Land Ownership in Rapa (French Polynesia)Christian GhasarianChapter 3. Between Vulnerability, Resilience and Resistance: Fiji Islander Women Activists and the Ethno-Nationalist Political Crises in 2000Sina EmdeChapter 4. Resisting UN Ideals to Make Men and Women Equal in Politics: When a Humanist Concern Turns into Arithmetic in Ouvea (New Caledonia)Mélissa NayralChapter 5. Independence from Independence: History, Landownership and Politics in South Malekula, VanuatuLaurent DoussetChapter 6. The Reasonableness of Leaders and the Gaming of Mining Incomes in Papua New GuineaJohn BurtonAfterword: Values in Flux – Reflections on Resilience and Change in MelanesiaMartha MacintyreIndex