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The insular Pacific is a region saturated with great cultural diversity and poignant memories of colonial and Christian intrusion. Considering authenticity and authorship in the area, this book looks at how these ideas have manifested themselves in Pacific peoples and cultures. Through six rich complementary case studies, a theoretical introduction, and a critical afterword, this volume explores authenticity and authorship as "traveling concepts." The book reveals diverse and surprising outcomes which shed light on how Pacific identity has changed from the past to the present.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction: On Authoring and Authenticity
Jeannette Mageo and Bruce Knauft Chapter 1. Tenues Végétales in Beauty Contests of French Polynesia: Authenticity on Islanders' Own Terms
Joyce D. Hammond Chapter 2. American Colonial Mimicry: Cultural Identity Fantasies and Being "Authentic" in Samoa
Jeannette Mageo Chapter 3. Authorship, Authenticity, Anthropology: Critical Reflections across Four Decades of Work with Gebusi
Bruce Knauft Chapter 4. Authenticity and the Garamut Slit-Drum in Papua New Guinea
Alphonse Aime Chapter 5. The Flying Fox and the Sentiment of Being: On the Authenticity of a Papua New Guinea Rawa Tradition
Doug Dalton Chapter 6. Digital Storytelling in the Pacific and "Ethnographic Orientalism"
Sarina Pearson Chapter 7. Afterward -- Authoring and Authenticity: Reflections on Traveling Concepts in Oceania
Margaret Jolly Index
About the author
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.
Bruce Knauft is Samuel C. Dobbs Professor of Anthropology at Emory University. He is the author of nine books and edited collections, and has, in addition to Papua New Guinea, worked in East and West Africa, Mongolia, Myanmar, India, and Tibet.
Summary
Reconsidering issues of representation in the insular Pacific, this volume explores authenticity and authorship in practice as “traveling concepts” that spawn cross-fertilization along the cultural and historical routes they traverse.
