Cosmology: Oceanic
Cosmologies Encyclopedia of Religion Since over a quarter of the world’s discrete religions are found in Oceania or on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, generalizations about their worldviews do not come easily. Because the languages of Polynesia, and virtually all Micronesia, belong to the Austronesian (formerly Malayo-Polynesian) phylum, it is easier to detect a certain […]

Declared Port Vila land owners visit President
On Monday last week the declared custom land owners of the land Port Vila town has been built on met President Obed Tallis to officially inform him of the declaration. The declaration was reportedly made in May last year by the Efate Island Court last year. The declared custom land owners from Erakor, Eratap, Pango […]

Chief Worwor expresses concerns about upcoming chiefs elections
The caretaker President of the Port Vila Town Council of Chiefs and member of the caretaker Malvatumauri council of chiefs has raised concerns about what he said was a new method being introduced for election of Malvatumauri, island councils of chiefs and the two urban councils of chiefs due next month. All the councils of chiefs […]
Melanesia and Western Colonialism
Melanesia is a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean and forms, together with Micronesia and Polynesia, one of the three cultural areas of Oceania. Melanesia includes New Guinea, the Torres Strait Islands of northern Australia, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and the Fiji Islands. The name Melanesia derives from Greek words meaning black islands […]
Melanesian socialism
The concept of Melanesian socialism was first advocated by Father Walter Lini of the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu), who became the country’s first prime minister upon its independence from France and the United Kingdom in 1980. Lini’s views on socialism were inspired by Julius Nyerere’s experiments in African socialism in Tanzania. Lini believed that socialism was inherently compatible with Melanesian societies and customs, including the emphasis on communal welfare over individualism, and the communal ownership and working of […]
Pacific islanders may carry the DNA of an unknown human species: Genetic study reveals ancient Melanesians interbred with a mysterious hominid
Pacific islanders may carry the DNA of an unknown human species: Genetic study reveals ancient Melanesians interbred with a mysterious hominid Islanders in the Pacific Ocean may be may be carrying traces of a long lost human species locked up in their DNA. Today, modern humans inherit a small chunk of our genes from Neanderthals, […]
Rank and Status in Polynesia and Melanesia: Introduction
Introduction Jean Guiart p. 7-8 TEXT AUTHOR FULL TEXT Source: http://books.openedition.org 1Douglas Oliver m’est arrivé à Nouméa, un jour de la fin de 1949 si je ne m’abuse, alors que je peinais dans le démarrage d’une carrière scientifique à partir d’une formation reçue à une époque fertile en orages. Après Radcliffe-Brown vu à Paris en 1947, c’était le […]
Race, Class and Ethnicity : Industrial Relations in the South Pacific
Race, Class and Ethnicity : Industrial Relations in the South Pacific with Special Reference to Fiji and Bougainville1 Alexander Mamak and Richard Bedford p. 45-60 TEXT BIBLIOGRAPHY NOTES ENDNOTES AUTHOR(S)ILLUSTRATIONS FULL TEXT Source: http://books.openedition.org 1 The fieldwork conducted by the senior author in Fiji between 1970-72 was made possible by a grant (…) 1 The importance of class analysis for explaining contemporary behaviour in the South […]
Rank and Status in Polynesia and Melanesia
Essays in honor of professor Douglas Oliver Douglas L. Oliver Publications de la SdO … Excerpt (Source: http://books.openedition.org) One of the less fortunate legacies that we who practice ethnography in Oceania have given the scholarly world is the stereotype of the Melanesian leader as “Big Man”. The designation “Big Man”, derived literally from the metaphor commonly used […]
Archaeology and the Origins of Social Stratification in Southern Bougainville
Archaeology and the Origins of Social Stratification in Southern Bougainville John Terrell p. 23-43 TEXT BIBLIOGRAPHY NOTES AUTHORILLUSTRATIONS FULL TEXT Source: http://books.openedition.org One of the Lessons of modern economic geography, abstract theory of graphs, and contemporary thinking in theoretical biology appears to be that hierarchical control networks are one solution to the problem of what to do about systems that […]
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