Across The Great Divide: Journeys In History And Anthropology (studies In Anthropology And History)

Across The Great Divide Tracks A Pacific Historian's Fruitful, Ambivalent Engagements With History And Anthropology, Anticipating Experiments In Each Discipline With The Other's Theories, And Praxis. The Revised And New Essays Comprising This Collection Provide Systematic Critiques Of Aspects Of Received Scholarly Wisdom About Oceania And Are Linked By Reflexive Commentaries Addressing Recent Postcolonial Concerns. A Varied But Coherent Set Of Ethnographic And Historical Narratives About Colonial Encounters In Island Melanesia Is Informed By Particular Critical Focus On The Paradoxes And Politics Of Knowing Indigenous Pasts Through Colonial Texts.--jacket. Maori Leadership. In: Rank, Power, Authority: A Reassessment Of Traditional Leadership In South Pacific Societies. Bronwen Douglas. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 325-350) And Index. "Across the Great Divide tracks a Pacific historian's fruitful, ambivalent engagements with History and Anthropology, anticipating experiments in each discipline with the other's theories, and praxis. The revised and new essays comprising this collection provide systematic critiques of aspects of received scholarly wisdom about Oceania and are linked by reflexive commentaries addressing recent postcolonial concerns. A varied but coherent set of ethnographic and historical narratives about colonial encounters in Island Melanesia is informed by particular critical focus on the paradoxes and politics of knowing indigenous pasts through colonial texts."--BOOK JACKET This collection of essays provides an investigation into received scholarly wisdom about Oceania, and deploys ethnographic and historical narratives about colonial encounters in New Caledonia and elsewhere in Melanesia. Themes covered include - indigenous leadership, fighting and others. This chapter was first published in 1979 in a special issue of the Journal of Pacific History (14: 2-27), which I initiated after convening a colloquium on the theme of south Pacific Islands leadership. First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company