Identity Work: Constructing Pacific Lives (Association of Social Anthropology in Oceania Monographs) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0822941155 ISBN 13: 9780822941156

Publisher: Univ of Pittsburgh Pr, 2000

Synopsis

Traditionally, life-story narratives have held a significant place in anthropological writings. Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern strive to broaden and deepen this tradition by explicitly linking biography, history, and the concepts of personhood. Each contributing author traces a set of themes in the life of the subject represented, showing how persons can be both linked to and alienated from their social worlds through their own developing experiences. These studies contribute to the understanding of how Pacific Islanders creatively negotiate with changes in their lives over time, and how their ongoing construction of their identities relates to the wider processes of history in which they are involved. The authors' studies are drawn from across the Pacific--Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tonga, New Zealand, and the Marianas (Saipan)and represent a comprehensive and valuable study for scholars and those interested in Pacific culture.

About this title

About the Author:

Pamela J. Stewart is a research associate in anthropology and religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh and is adjunct lecturer in anthropology at the James Cook University (Townsville Australia). Her interests are in gender issues, political and religious change, violence, and medical anthropology, and her research is conducted in Papua New Guinea and Lowland Scotland. Her most recent coauthored books are Curing and Healing: Medical Anthropology in Global Perspective and The Python's Back: Pathways of Comparison Between Indonesia and Melanesia. She and Andrew Strathern have also coedited a special issue of the journal Ethnohistory, entitled "Millennial Countdown in New Guinea."

Andrew Strathern is Mellon Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. His interests are in the fields of political and legal anthropology, medical anthropology, and historical change. Most recently, he co-edited, with Pamela J. Stewart, Collaborations and Conflicts: A Leader Through Time and co-authored Arrow Talk: Transaction, Transition, and Contradiction in New Guinea Highlands History. His research is currently conducted in Lowland Scotland as well as Papua New Guinea.

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ of Pittsburgh Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0822941155
• ISBN 13: 9780822941156
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 217
• Editor: Stewart Pamela J., Strathern Andrew