Revised Edition of The Pacific Islands: Environment and Society Now Available

The Pacific is the last major world region to be discovered by humans. Although small in total land area, its numerous islands and archipelagoes with their startlingly diverse habitats and biotas, extend across a third of the globe. This revised edition of the popular text The Pacific Islands: Environment and Society, edited by Moshe Rapaport, explores the diverse landforms, climates, and ecosystems of the Pacific island region. Multiple chapters, written by leading specialists, cover the environment, history, culture, population, and economy. The work includes new or completely revised chapters on gender, music, logging, development, education, urbanization, health, ocean resources, and tourism. Throughout two key issues are addressed: the exceptional environmental challenges and the demographic/economic/political challenges facing the region. Although modern technology and media and waves of continental tourists are fast eroding island cultures, the continuing resilience of Pacific island populations is apparent.

May 2013 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3586-6 / $48.00 (PAPER)

Moving Images Wins Award from the Society for Visual Anthropology

Moving Images: John Layard, Fieldwork, and Photography on Malakula since 1914, by Haidy Geismar and Anita Herle, is the most recent recipient of the John Collier Jr., Award for Still Photography from the Society for Visual Anthropology. The award is made periodically for work that exemplifies the use of still photography, both historical and contemporary, for research and communication of anthropological knowledge, and for excellence in visual anthropology.

The Collier Committee members were impressed with the authors’ contribution:

“and in particular with the presentation of unpublished archival materials, John Layard’s story, and historical photos supplemented with his contextual field notes integrated in such an engaging format with contemporary visual research and literature, essays, text, and the reintroduction of historical and contemporary photos into the culture today.”

The official presentation of the award was made last week during the 2012 American Anthropology Association annual meeting in San Francisco.

New in the Writing Past Colonialism Series

Papua New Guinea is going through a crisis: A concentration on conventional approaches to development, including an unsustainable reliance on mining, forestry, and foreign aid, has contributed to the country’s slow decline since independence in 1975. Sustainable Communities, Sustainable Development: Other Paths for Papua New Guinea, by Paul James, Yaso Nadarajah, Karen Haive, and Victoria Stead, attempts to address problems and gaps in the literature on development and develop a new qualitative conception of community sustainability informed by substantial and innovative research in Papua New Guinea.

“Sustainable Communities is an excellent work; remarkable. It manages to combine a sense of the complexity of its subject while remaining highly readable. I found it deeply probing, sustaining a sense of complexity across a multitude of terrains. Importantly, the book displays a belief in the possibilities of the village and displaced communities while retaining a sense of relevant problems.” —Dr. Nonie Sharo, author of Stars of Tagai: The Torres Strait Islanders

Writing Past Colonialism
July 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3640-5 / $27.00 (PAPER)

History of New Caledonia’s Great War, 1917-1918

During 1917–1918, war ravaged the hill country north of New Caledonia’s main island, the Grande terre. Occurring sixty-four years after France’s 1853 annexation of New Caledonia and in the midst of the Great War of 1914–1918, the conflict was known by the mid-twentieth century as “the last of the kanak revolts.” It represented to many—until the “events” of the 1980s—the final pacification of Kanak (the indigenous people of New Caledonia). Specters of Violence in a Colonial Context: New Caledonia, 1917, by Adrian Muckle, is the first comprehensive history of the 1917–1918 war, which involved the French army, European settlers, and Kanak. In three parts, it addresses the events leading to the outbreak of war, how those involved explained their role in the fighting, and how the war has since been represented.

May 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3509-5 / $55.00 (CLOTH)

Inaugural Volume in Topics in the Contemporary Pacific Series

Corruption is a popular topic in the Pacific Islands. Politicians are accused of it and campaign against it. Fiji’s coup leaders vowed to clean it up. Several countries have “leadership codes” designed to reduce corruption, and others have created specialized anti-corruption agencies. But what counts as corruption in the Pacific and what causes it? How much is really going on? How can we measure it? What types are present? Are gifts really bribes? Is “culture” an excuse for corruption? Is politics—in particular, democracy—intrinsically corrupt? In clear and concise language, Interpreting Corruption: Culture and Politics in the Pacific Islands, by Peter Larmour, attempts to answer these questions.

“This book performs a hat trick (for those unfamiliar with upper-latitude sports, three goals by an ice hockey player is a hat trick) by explaining the meaning of corruption in the Pacific Islands, clarifying the central concepts in the study of public integrity, and deftly guiding the reader on a journey through coups, scams, and a plethora of ideas about an age old problem.” —Frank Anechiarico, Hamilton College

Topics in the Contemporary Pacific
March 2012 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3514-9 / $49.00 (CLOTH)

UH Press Authors Presenting at ASAO Annual Meeting

UH Press authors Elfriede Hermann, Niko Besnier, Margeret Jolly, Susanne Kuehling, Glenn Petersen, Julianna Flinn, and Jan Rensel, among others, will be among the scholars presenting at this year’s ASAO (Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania) meeting in Portland, February 7–11. The Press will have on display about two dozen titles, order forms, book flyers, and a new PIMS (Pacific Islands Monograph Series) brochure.

Mahalo to Jan Rensel, shown here at last year’s meeting, for lending a hand at the book exhibit.

A Cultural History of Kanaky-New Calendonia

Nights of Storytelling: A Cultural History of New Caledonia, edited by Raylene Ramsay, is the first book to present and contextualize the founding texts of New Caledonia, a country sui generis in the relatively little-known French Pacific. Extracts from literary, ethnographic, and historical works in English translation introduce the many voices of a diverse culture as it moves toward “independence” or the “common destiny” framed by the 1998 Noumea Agreements. These texts reflect the coexistence of two major cultures, indigenous and European, shaped by the energies and shadows of empire and significantly influenced by one another.

Nights of Storytelling is a collaborative work complemented by La nuit des contes, a subtitled DVD of images and text, which features key works read or spoken, generally in the original French. It provides visual and aural access for the book’s Anglophone readers to the specific cultural, linguistic, and geographic contexts of these historical and literary works.

November 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3222-3 / $49.00 (CLOTH + DVD)

An Oceanic Grammar of Vanuatu

Spoken on Mavea Island by approximately 32 people, Mavea is an endangered Oceanic language of Vanuatu. A Grammar of Mavea: An Oceanic Language of Vanuatu, by Valérie Guérin, provides grammatical descriptions of this hitherto undescribed language. Fourteen chapters, containing more than 1,400 examples, cover topics in the phonology and morphosyntax of Mavea, with an emphasis on the latter. Of particular interest are examples of individual speaker variation presented throughout the grammar; the presence of three linguo-labials (still used today by a single speaker) that were unexpectedly found before the rounded vowel /o/; and a chapter on numerals and the counting system, which have long been replaced by Bislama’s but are remembered by a handful of speakers.

November 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3639-9 / $40.00 (PAPER)
Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications, No. 39

New Catalog: Hawaii and the Pacific 2012

The UH Press Hawai‘i and the Pacific 2012 catalog is now available. To view the 4.6M PDF (the catalog is available online only), click on the cover image to the left.

Highlights include:

* An illustrated history of the ‘ukulele (The ‘Ukulele: A History)

* A handy guide to “power foods”: fruits, vegetables, and nuts that could save your life (Eat Smart, Stay Well)

* The story behind the conservation of the Big Island’s King Kamehameha statue and its meaning for the residents of Kapa‘au (The Painted King: Art, Activism, and Authenticity in Hawai‘i)

* Two histories of Kaluapapa/Makanalua: (Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory) and (Ma‘i Lepera: A History of Leprosy in Nineteenth-Century Hawai‘i)

* An illustrated compilation of traditional Hawaiian design (Links to the Past: The Work of Early Hawaiian Artisans)

* Two works offering invaluable insights into Hawaiian culture: (No Na Mamo: Traditional Contemporary Hawaiian Beliefs and Practices) and (I Ulu I Ke Kumu: The Hawai‘inuiakea Monograph)

* The autobiography of legendary Hawai‘i jazzman Gabe Baltazar Jr. (If It Swings, It’s Music: The Autobiography of Hawai‘i’s Gabe Baltazar Jr.)

* A trek into the past with Hawai‘i hiking expert Stuart Ball (Native Paths to Volunteer Trails: Hiking and Trail Building on O‘ahu)

* The most comprehensive and thoroughly illustrated treatment of loulu, the Hawaiian palm (Loulu: The Hawaiian Palm)

* A look at the complex interaction between lived sexualities and socio-legal mores at the turn of the 20th century (Queer Compulsions: Race, Nation, and Sexuality in the Affairs of Yone Noguchi)

* A posthumous work detailing the spiritual journey of a young Japanese scholar who immersed himself in Australian Indigenous culture (Gurindji Journey: A Japanese Historian in the Outback)

Transformations of Cultural Traditions in Oceania

Changing Contexts, Shifting Meanings: Transformations of Cultural Traditions in Oceania, edited by Elfriede Hermann, sheds new light on processes of cultural transformation at work in Oceania and analyzes them as products of interrelationships between culturally created meanings and specific contexts. In a series of inspiring essays, noted scholars of the region examine these interrelationships for insight into how cultural traditions are shaped on an ongoing basis.

September 2011 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3366-4 / $58.00 (CLOTH)