The Power of Perspective

Readers interested in Pacific kinship and exchange will find much to value in The Power of the Perspective. This is also a book that can be useful for scholars who want an ethnographic example of how to approach analyzing society as a universal, albeit locally produced, concept. Pacific Affairs "As the first ethnographic monograph of Ambrym to find its way to publication, The Power of Perspective is to be highly recommended, particularly to students and scholars of Melanesian anthropology and to theoreticians of ritual agency and exchange. Rio's treatment of exchange, ritual process and social form are highly sophisticated, and I have no doubt that his development of the theory of 'thirdness' will prove to be of enduring value to the discipline. Oceania "Rio's ethnography effectively documents Vanuatu's enduring abundance of culture and the power of its perspective - the uses of looking at our world through Islander eyes." The Contemporary Pacific "La lecture de cet ouvrage trs savant, aux abondantes rfrences autant classique que contemporaines, anthropologiques, sociologiques ou philosophiques, demand une attention soutenue, mais n'en tmoigne pas moins d'une pense novatrice, clairement exprim." Moussons "What Rio does do well is to encourage the reader to understand how peoples' actions, especially with regards to exchange, are situated within larger webs of social interactions to create order and meaning for the people involved. Further, he does do this with theoretical vigour and ample ethnographic examples. As such, the book is a useful, if not essential, addition to the wealth of ethnographic material on Ambrym Island" Journal of the Polynesian Society "A number of theoretical issues that he raises in this slender book would be useful to anyone interested in the comparative studies of the region." Anthropos

Knut Mikjel Rio is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Vanuatu in the western Pacific, and research themes relate to ideas about social ontology, production and ceremonial and the relation between the monetary economy and sorcery in Vanuatu.

List of maps and illustrations Foreword: Putting people first Acknowledgements Note on language Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. Kinship and sand-drawing Chapter 3. The totalising third party Chapter 4. The circles of marriage Chapter 5. Of yams and men Chapter 6. The intentionality of ceremonial agency Chapter 7. Displaying life after Death Chapter 8. The phenomenology of Ambrym exchange Chapter 9. Conclusions: Denying the gift Appendices Bibliography Index