1. Introduction -- 2. Land and People, Relationships and Rules -- 3. People and Ghosts, Religion and Politics -- 4. Going Overseas (1870s to 1890s) -- 5. God and Government Arrive (1900s to 1910s) -- 6. The Christian Transformation (1920s to 1930s) -- 7. Masing Rul: The Maasina Rule Movement (1940s) -- 8. Towards 'Independence' (1950s to 1980s) -- 9. The Christian Social Order -- 10. Kwaraae Christianity and Christian Tradition
Summary
Tradition and Christianity explores the way a Pacific Islands people, fiercely attached to the tradition of their ancestors, have transformed their society by changing their religion. Taking a perspective from the culture of the Kwaraae people of Malaita island, it traces a century of colonial history to show how and why they rejected the religion of their ancestral ghosts to become Christians. This is a story of resistance and compromise, from the 19th century labour trade through colonial subjugation and Christian conversion, to the anti-colonial Maasina Rul movement of the 1940s and the efforts of Kwaraae leaders ever since to regain their self determination by reaffirming traditional values under Christianity. Christianity has played a crucial part in the colonial transformation of the Pacific Islands. This book presents an unusually detailed local history to show how a fundamentalist mission contributed to the development of a distinctive indigenous Christianity with strong but ambivalent foundations in Kwaraae traditional culture. An anthropological study of a subject more familiar to missiologists and historians gives valuable new insights into the continuities and contradictions between traditional culture and Christianity in the contemporary Pacific
Analysis
Christianity and politics Solomon Islands Malaita Province
Kwara'ae (Solomon Islands people) Government relations
Kwara'ae (Solomon Islands people) History
Kwara'ae (Solomon Islands people) Missions
Malaita Province (Solomon Islands) Politics and government
Missions History Solomon Islands Malaita Province
Missions - Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands - Politics and government
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-291) and index
