The Other Side: Ways of Being and Place in Vanuatu (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780824833022)

The Other Side is the first major ethnographic and historical study of the Sia Raga people of north Pentecost Island, a region that was home to the late Father Walter Lini, Vanuatu's first prime minister. Exploring Raga social, spatial, and historical consciousness, this richly poetic account provides important theoretical contributions to ongoing debates in Pacific anthropology about the relation between structure and history, and place and time. It reveals important insights into the convergence of indigenous and exogenous cosmologies and hegemonies historically, and shows how these are implicated in contemporary social, ritual, and material cultural expressions. These analyses engage with broader concerns relating to colonial and postcolonial identities, political economy, and globalization in island Melanesia.

The Other Side combines original and substantial ethnography with sophisticated theoretical reflection that will appeal broadly across the field of anthropology. It will also be of considerable value to scholars of Pacific and Melanesian history, politics, and society. The clear writing and entertaining narrative combine to create a work that is accessible to a wide audience. The volume's critical and reflective analysis of anthropological research makes it a valuable teaching aid in courses that focus on ethnographic methods and writing. Students in Pacific anthropology will find it especially useful.37

Author: John Patrick Taylor
ISBN-10: 0824833023
ISBN-13: 9780824833022
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Language: English
Published: 07/08/2008
Pages: 254
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.10w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2008 pg. 78
Choice 09/01/2009