The geo‐classifications of colonial statelessness

The anthropology of Kastom , land and citizenship in the decolonisation of Vanuatu

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11619362
AutoresGregory Rawlings (0000-0002-8047-9108, University of Otago, autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Volumen26
Número2
Páginas145-173
Fecha de publicación2014-09-22
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Australian Journal of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1035-8811 • E-ISSN: 1757-6547
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/taja.12108
OpenAlexW2003822275
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas5
Referencias citadas60

Anthropological accounts of Vanuatu's independence have emphasised both the materiality of land alienation and the importance of kastom (custom) as a symbol of cultural practice, political resistance and national unity in accounts of decolonisation and postcolonial nation‐making. For 74 years indigenous ni‐Vanuatu were stateless and lacked all forms of citizenship and nationality in the Anglo‐French Condominium of the New Hebrides (1906–1980). This article situates anthropological accounts of land, kastom and the state in Vanuatu's transition to independence in relation to statelessness, citizenship and hierarchies of ethnographic authenticity within the geo‐classificatory frameworks of colonial rule established by the condominium. The embodiment of citizenship and demands to end the cumulative humiliations of statelessness that ni‐Vanuatu experienced in the condominium illuminate both tensions and continuities in idealist and materialist accounts of Melanesian nationalisms evident in kastom and land as they were mediated by the emancipatory claims and promises of postcolonial citizenship

Aesthetics · Alienation · Citizenship · Colonialism · Decolonization · Diaspora · Ethnology · Independence (probability theory · Materiality (auditing · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sovereignty · Statelessness · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Gender Studies · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law · Philosophy