Cultural Identity and Ethnicity in the Pacific

Politics & Social Sciences

Poyer, Lin

Linnekin, Jocelyn

Social Sciences

Univ of Hawaii Pr

World War II was a watershed event for the people of the former Japanese colonies of Micronesia. The Japanese military build-up, the conflict itself, and the American occupation and control of the conquered islands brought rapid and dramatic changes to Micronesian life. Whether they spent the war in caves and bomb shelters, in sweet potato fields under armed Japanese guard, or in their own homes, Micronesians who survived those years recognize that their peoples underwent a major historical transformation. Like a typhoon, the war swept away a former life. The Typhoon of War combines archival research and oral history culled from more than three hundred Micronesian survivors to offer a comparative history of the war in Micronesia. It is the first book to develop Islander perspectives on a topic still dominated by military histories that all but ignore the effects of wartime operations on indigenous populations. The authors explore the significant cultural meanings of the war for Island peoples, for the events of the war are the foundation on which Micronesians have constructed their modern view of themselves, their societies, and the wider world. Their recollections of those tumultuous years contain a wealth of detail about wartime activities, local conditions, and social change, making this an invaluable reference for anyone interested in twentieth-century Micronesia. Photographs, maps, and a detailed chronology will help readers situate Micronesian experiences within the broader context of the Pacific War.

The Typhoon of War: Micronesian Experiences of the Pacific War

History

Falgout, Suzanne

Carucci, Laurence Marshall

Australia & Oceania

University of Hawaii Press

Memories of War: Micronesians in the Pacific War

Micronesians often liken the Pacific War to a typhoon, one that swept away their former lives and brought dramatic changes to their understandings of the world and their places in it. Whether they spent the war in bomb shelters, in sweet potato fields under the guns of Japanese soldiers, or in their homes on atolls sheltered from the war, Micronesians who survived those years know that their peoples passed through a major historical transformation. Yet Pacific War histories scarcely mention the Islanders across whose lands and seas the fighting waged. Memories of War sets out to the fill that historical gap by presenting the missing voices of Micronesians and by viewing those years from their perspectives. The focus is on Micronesian remembrances―the ritual commemorations, features of the landscape, stories, dances, and songs that keep their memories of the conflict alive. The inclusion of numerous and extensive interviews and songs is an important feature of this book, allowing Micronesians to speak for themselves about their experiences. In addition, they also reveal distinctively Micronesian cultural memories of war. Memories of War preserves powerful and poignant memories for Micronesians; it also demonstrates to students of history and culture the extent to which cultural practices and values shape the remembrance of personal experience.

Micronesians often liken the Pacific War to a typhoon, one that swept away their former lives and brought dramatic changes to their understandings of the world and their places in it. This book presents the missing voices of Micronesians and views those years from their perspectives.

War at the Margins: Indigenous Experiences in World War II (Sustainable History Monograph Pilot)

Americas

This book is written collaboratively by experts on different regions of Oceania. It presents a unique tool for instructors and general readers who wish to become more familiar with the peoples of the Pacific and for scholars looking for an analytical conspectus on this part of the world. Oceania combines surveys of prehistory and history with careful discussions of cultural patterns and problems arising out of contemporary political and economic change. Many of the issues discussed relate to concerns in other global regions, including North America and Australia. General discussions on specific islands or sub-regions are followed by wide-ranging studies that bring together classic themes and recent issues as viewed in current scholarship. Readers will find the book easy to understand, and instructors will find the layout of the materials easy to set into course syllabi. Each section of the book probes issues that are significant for the study of the peoples of Oceania. These issues range from the contemporary interpretation and manifestation of traditional concepts such as "aloha"; ("pity," "love," "affection," "sympathy," or "empathy") to the development of ethnicity and political conflict between local and national levels within the state, to the long-term influence of forms of Christianity and their intertwining with indigenous religion and ritual. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize the vitality and adaptability of Pacific Islanders in the context of rapid and continuing transformations in their life worlds. In this completely revised second edition of the book, all sections have been comprehensively updated with regard to recent scholarly literature on and political changes in the societies studied. In their expanded Introduction, Stewart and Strathern have included further discussions of studies on religious change, on aesthetic genres, and in particular on the relatively new arena of Disaster Anthropology that they have been developing for a number of years. They acknowledge also the affinity of the indigenous Austronesian speakers of Taiwan with the Pacific Islanders discussed in this book.

Oceania: An Introduction to the Cultures and Identities of Pacific Islanders

Feinberg, Richard

Strathern, Andrew

Stewart, Pamela

Carucci, Laurence

Carolina Academic Press

In 1837 the men of Sapwuahfik Atoll (then called Ngatik) in Micronesia were killed by the crew of an Australian trade ship over a cache of valuable tortoiseshell possessed by the islanders. Using written and oral accounts, Lin Poyer vividly reconstructs the horrific events that nearly decimated Ngatik's aboriginal population, and then examines the modern Sapwuahfik society to determine the role of historical representation in the construction of community identity. After the massacre, survivors, attackers, and immigrants formed fragile unions that became the foundation of a new biologically and culturally mixed society. Building on recent scholarly work in the symbolism of identity and the cultural construction of history, Poyer shows how the Sapwuahfik people use the memory of the massacre in their effort to maintain a distinctive identity. The Ngatik Massacre is both a work of ethnohistory - using oral traditions and written documents to uncover the circumstances surrounding the massacre and its aftermath - and a reevaluation of the concept of ethnicity, examining the cultural and sociopolitical factors shaping community identity, as Sapwuahfik people call on traditional identity to validate contemporary political goals. The book uses cultural, sociological, and historical information, bringing together recent advances in cultural analysis and ethnohistory by applying them to a study of the destruction and reconstruction of the Sapwuahfik community. Lin Poyer is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Cincinnati.

NGATIK MASSACRE (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry)

Smithsonian

NGATIK MASSACRE PB (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry) by POYER LIN.

NGATIK MASSACRE PB (Smithsonian Series in Ethnographic Inquiry)

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