Authenticity and Authorship in Pacific Island Encounters

Jeannette Mageo is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Washington State University. She has authored ten books and edited collections. Her recent research examines the collision of Samoan and European cultures and psychologies in the colonial encounter through performance art, historical photos, and colonial artifacts.

“This is a fine collection of essays about the vexed question of what constitutes authenticity, how it relates to authorship, and, most importantly, how these concepts have travelled in cultural exchanges between Western and Pacific societies…The theoretical questions that are examined in this collection are presented in a substantial introduction by the editors, in which they situate their enquiry not only against the backdrop of Pacific anthropology, but also in a wider perspective on the subject of change in European philosophy since the Enlightenment. Their agenda is ambitious and intellectually challenging … a must-read for everyone interested in cultural change and the concept of authenticity.” • Anthropos

• List of IllustrationsIntroduction: On Authoring and AuthenticityJeannette Mageo and Bruce KnauftChapter 1. Tenues Végétales in Beauty Contests of French Polynesia: Authenticity on Islanders’ Own TermsJoyce D. HammondChapter 2. American Colonial Mimicry: Cultural Identity Fantasies and Being “Authentic” in SamoaJeannette MageoChapter 3. Authorship, Authenticity, Anthropology: Critical Reflections across Four Decades of Work with GebusiBruce KnauftChapter 4. Authenticity and the Garamut Slit-Drum in Papua New GuineaAlphonse AimeChapter 5. The Flying Fox and the Sentiment of Being: On the Authenticity of a Papua New Guinea Rawa TraditionDoug DaltonChapter 6. Digital Storytelling in the Pacific and “Ethnographic Orientalism”Sarina PearsonChapter 7. Afterward -- Authoring and Authenticity: Reflections on Traveling Concepts in OceaniaMargaret JollyIndex