| Description |
xiv, 343 pages : map ; 24 cm |
| Series |
East-West Center series on contemporary issues in Asia and the Pacific |
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Contemporary issues in Asia and the Pacific.
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| Contents |
1. Introduction: Chiefs Today / Lamont Lindstrom and Geoffrey M. White -- 2. The Persistence of Chiefly Authority in Western Samoa / Cluny Macpherson -- 3. Rank and Leadership in Tonga / Kerry James -- 4. The Kingly-Populist Divergence in Tongan and Western Samoan Chiefly Systems / Robert W. Franco -- 5. The Reemergence of Maori Chiefs: "Devolution" as a Strategy to Maintain Tribal Authority / Toon van Meijl -- 6. Chiefs, Politics, and the Power of Tradition in Contemporary Fiji / Stephanie Lawson -- 7. Ritual Status and Power Politics in Modern Rotuma / Alan Howard and Jan Rensel -- 8. Traditional Leaders Today in the Federated States of Micronesia / Eve C. Pinsker -- 9. A Micronesian Chamber of Chiefs? The 1990 Federated States of Micronesia Constitutional Convention / Glenn Petersen -- 10. Irooj Ro Ad: Measures of Chiefly Ideology and Practice in the Marshall Islands / Laurence M. Carucci -- 11. Chiefs in Vanuatu Today / Lamont Lindstrom |
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12. The Discourse of Chiefs: Notes on a Melanesian Society / Geoffrey M. White -- 13. Tuesday's Chiefs Revisited / Roger M. Keesing -- 14. Constructing and Contesting Chiefly Authority in Contemporary Tana Toraja, Indonesia / Kathleen M. Adams -- 15. Conclusions: Chiefs and States Today / Peter Larmour |
| Summary |
This volume presents detailed analyses of the accommodations between chiefs and states in thirteen Pacific societies. In some states, traditional perquisites and political authority have overlapped so that the state is a contemporary form of chiefdom. Elsewhere, chiefs operate as a mechanism of local accommodation to centralized state authority, facilitating state operations in the local community. In still other states, local chiefs have risen up against central authority, leading their communities in opposition to the state and its depredations. In each case, the chief is a focus for cultural struggle in the border zones of local, national, and transnational politics. The renewed significance of chiefs, and the discussions and disagreements that surround them, are a vital part of debates about identity and power in the Pacific today. In some cases, these debates produce calls for the revitalization and reempowerment of chiefs; in others, they spark attempts to constrict or otherwise regulate their powers. In either instance, these controversies provide a window into social and political transformation in postcolonial states today. The Pacific societies treated are: Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Rotuma, Solomon Islands, Tana Toraja (Indonesia), Tonga, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, and New Zealand |
| Notes |
Formerly CIP. Uk |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [311]-331) and index |
| Subject |
Chiefdoms -- Islands of the Pacific.
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Chiefdoms -- Oceania.
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Chiefdoms.
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Leadership.
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| SUBJECT |
Islands of the Pacific http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85068616 -- Colonial influence.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh99005253
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Islands of the Pacific http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85068616 -- Politics and government. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2002011436
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Oceania -- Politics and government. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008116420
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| Author |
Lindstrom, Lamont Carl
|
|
White, Geoffrey M. (Geoffrey Miles), 1949-
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| LC no. |
97008986 |
| ISBN |
0804728496 (cloth : alk. paper) |
|
0804728518 (paperback: alk. paper) |
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