Changing Contexts, Shifting Meanings: Transformations of Cultural Traditions in Oceania

386 Pages·2011·25.462 MB·English

by  Elfriede Hermann

Changing Contexts
Shifting Meanings
Transformations of Cultural Traditions in Oceania
Edited by Elfriede Hermann
Changing Contexts—Shifting Meanings

Changing Contexts,
Shifting Meanings
Transformations of
Cultural Traditions in Oceania
edited by
Elfriede Hermann
University of Hawai‘i Press
in Association with the Honolulu Academy of Arts
Honolulu
This publication is partly funded by the
Doris Duke Foundation Endowment Fund
at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
© 2011 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Changing contexts, shifting meanings : transformations of cultural
traditions in Oceania / edited by Elfriede Hermann.
p. cm.
Papers from a symposium sponsored by the Honolulu Academy of Arts,
held Feb. 23–26, 2006, in conjunction with the exhibition Life in the Pacific
of the 1700s.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3366-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Oceania—Civilization—Congresses. 2. Social change—Oceania—
Congresses. 3. Pacific Islanders—Congresses. I. Hermann, Elfriede.
DU28.C47 2011
995—dc22
2011005312
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by Josie Herr
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc.
Contents
Foreword
Stephen Little vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction ˜ Engaging with Interactions: Traditions as Context-Bound
Articulations
Elfriede Hermann 1
Changing Contexts, Shifting Meanings: The Cook / Forster Collection,
For Example
Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin 20
Part I: Early Encounters
Histories of the Before: Lelu, Nan Madol, and Deep Time
David Hanlon 41
Beyond the Beach? Re-articulating the Limen in Oceanic Pasts, Presents,
and Futures
Margaret Jolly 56
Encountering Agency: Islanders, European Voyagers, and the Production
of Race in Oceania
Bronwen Douglas 74
Aphrodite’s Island: Sexual Mythologies in Early Contact Tahiti
Anne Salmond 93
An Encounter with Violence in Paradise: Georg Forster’s Reflections
on War in Aotearoa, Tahiti, and Tonga (1772–1775)
Gundolf Krüger 107
Inventing Polynesia
Serge Tcherkézoff 123
Part II: Memories
Naming and Memory on Tanna, Vanuatu
Lamont Lindstrom 141 v
vi | Contents
Inventing Traditions and Remembering the Past in Manus
Ton Otto 157
Social Mimesis, Commemoration, and Ethnic Performance:
Fiji Banaban Representations of the Past
Wolfgang Kempf 174
Part III: Global and (Trans)local Processes
Moving onto the Stage: Tourism and the Transformation of Tahitian Dance
Miriam Kahn 195
Producing Inalienable Objects in a Global Market: The Solien Besena
in Contemporary Australia
Jacquelyn A. Lewis-Harris 209
Alienation and Appropriation: Fijian Water and the Pacific Romance
in Fiji and New York
Martha Kaplan 221
Shanti and Mana: The Loss and Recovery of Culture under Postcolonial
Conditions in Fiji
John D. Kelly 235
Justice in Wallis-‘Uvea: Customary Rights and Republican Law
in a French Overseas Territory
Françoise Douaire-Marsaudon 250
Part IV: Cultural Exchange and Identities
Maori Traditions in Analogy with the Past
Toon van Meijl 263
Contemporary Tongan Artists and the Reshaping of Oceanic Identity
Paul van der Grijp 277
A Tale of Three Time Travelers: Maintaining Relationships,
Exploring Visual Technologies
Karen L. Nero 296
* * *
Cultural Change in Oceania: Remembering the Historical Questions
Peter Hempenstall 313
Epilogue
Aletta Biersack 323
Contributors 351
Index 357
Foreword
The symposium “Changing Contexts—Shifting Meanings: Transformations of Cultural
Traditions in Oceania” was sponsored by the Honolulu Academy of Arts between Feb-
ruary 23 and 26, 2006, in conjunction with the exhibition Life in the Pacific of the
1700s. This extraordinary gathering presented several hundred artifacts collected dur-
ing the second and third Pacific voyages of Captain James Cook (1728 –1779), gener-
ously loaned to the academy by the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the
Georg August University of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany, and the Lower Saxon
State Museum in Hanover.
The majority of these artifacts originated in Aotearoa (New Zealand), Tonga, and
Tahiti and were given to Göttingen University in 1782 (three years after Cook’s death)
by King George III of England. Some thirty-five of the works came from Hawai‘i,
while other works came from the northwest coast of America. A number of works
came to Göttingen from the collection of Johann Reinhold Forster, a natural scientist
who accompanied Cook on his second voyage. These combined gifts are known today
as the Cook / Forster Collection. These beautiful and rare artifacts at the exhibition’s
core, which included objects for both daily use and ritual, were largely made prior to
Cook’s contact with the indigenous cultures of the Pacific. They are extraordinary for
their beauty, craftsmanship, and unique mana (spiritual power). They are significant
as well because they were given as gifts to or traded with Cook from the peoples he
encountered.
The purpose of the Life in the Pacific of the 1700s exhibition was to celebrate the
brilliant cultural and spiritual lives of these indigenous peoples as they existed before
the first contact with Westerners. The exhibition explored the connections between
these cultures within the broader geographical context of the Pacific of the 1700s. These
rare and beautiful artifacts also posed the question: What is the role and relevance of
the indigenous cultures of the Pacific today? These and other lines of inquiry formed
the foundation of this international scholarly symposium, the idea for which was first
proposed to me by Professor Dr. Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin of Göttingen’s Institute of
Cultural and Social Anthropology. The symposium was organized by her colleague,
Dr.Elfriede Hermann, and I am deeply grateful to both scholars for their focus, perse-
verance, and enthusiasm. The symposium allowed for greater study and analysis of the
questions embodied in and activated by the exhibition’s remarkable artifacts.
The Honolulu Academy of Arts is deeply grateful to the many experts and schol-
ars who participated in the symposium and to Elfriede Hermann for her hard w ork vii
After blessing the Cook/Forster Collection, La‘akea Suganuma and the other members of the
Hawaiian delegation pay their respects to the feathered image of the god Kūkā‘ilimoku from
Hawai‘i. The objects selected for display at the Honolulu Academy of Arts were blessed on the
premises of the University of Göttingen’s Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology prior to
setting off on their long journey.
Photo: Wolfgang Kempf, January 23, 2006.
Maori club in the context of contemporary dance: from a performance
put on by a Maori dance group during the opening of the exhibition Life
in the Pacific of the 1700s at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
Photo: Shuzo Uemoto, February 22, 2006.
Copyright: Honolulu Academy of Arts.
Ancient Maori club (Inv. Oz 282) from the Cook/Forster Collection: in a
showcase at the exhibition Life in the Pacific of the 1700s.
Photo: Steffen Herrmann, February 22, 2006.