Ben J. Wallace - Böcker

This collection of reading shares the anthropological research interest and cultural variation of Pacific people, including significant and relevant articles focused on culture history, technology and economics, social life, politics and social control, religion, and culture change.Cultures of the Pacific is a necessary, beneficial, and informative read for undergraduate and graduate courses focused on the anthropology of Pacific people and cultures. Many of the selections included in this book, including four previously unpublished papers, have not been readily available to readers. The editors’ introductions to each section indicate the place of the individual contributions in Pacific studies in particular and in anthropology in general.

The publication of this book has required the cooperation of many people along the way. From its very conception, the project of bringing together experiences from ongoing Farming Systems Research projects has faced a problem of communication due to the dispersal of the participants. Dr. William Partridge and Lynne Goldstein were instrumental in the initial presentation of the symposium on Social Science participation in Farming Systems Research at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association. Ben Wallace has done an admirable job not only as editor but 8s a ilpoint m-an"- throughout the process or organizirig the conference and preparing the manuscript. He deserves credit tor expediting countless actMties that could never have otherwise been accomplished because of the vagaries or international mails and telecommunications.