Shifting Images of Identity in the Pacific

This book examines how identities emerge, persist and change in various Pacific societies. The ‘shifting images’ of identity are explored in pre-colonial, colonial as well as post-colonial circumstances. All the essays in this volume address both continuity and discontinuity in the construction of identities in the rapidly changing Pacific region. A region increasingly characterized by state-formation processes and global influences.
The introduction provides a theoretical analysis of the changing paradigm in the study of identity over recent decades. This is exemplified with a comparative overview of the emergence of a constructivist approach of culture, tradition and identity in Pacific studies. Nine ethnographic contributions subsequently address the central question from a variety of different angles. Some chapters focus on classic topics such as migration and myth, while others deal with indigenous peoples in modern nation-states, tourism, economic development, global consumerism or electronic communication. The societies in question range from relatively isolated groups to communities living dispersed around the globe. Each chapter provides valuable insights into the processes of identity in the Pacific over time. An epilogue provides a comparative reading of the different theoretical solutions that have been proposed to make sense of the ‘shifting images’ of identity in the contemporary, increasingly transnational Pacific.

Toon Van Meijl is a senior lecturer in the Centre for Pacific and Asian Studies at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Jelle Miedema was coordinator of an interdisciplinary Papua Studies project at Leiden University.