Learning to be A Kanaka
Menace and Mimicry in Papua New Guinea
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 18980918 |
|---|---|
| Authors | N Maclean (0000-0003-4753-9663, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2004-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Analysis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0155-977X • E-ISSN: 1558-5727 |
| Publisher | Berghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3167/015597704782352384 |
| OpenAlex | W2005190513 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 6 |
Self-identification as a kanaka is a common rhetorical ploy in highlands Papua New Guinea, used to emphasize both a sense of economic and political marginalization, and a continued identification with tradition. However, I argue that the figure of the kanaka is not simply that of the villager, but of that terminated project of education, the ‘school leaver.’ I juxtapose the reflections of one such ‘school leaver’ on his exclusion from the educational trajectory with the celebrations and rhetoric surrounding the opening of a new village school. This throws into relief a village perspective on education, and what it means to be a citizen of the nation-state of Papua New Guinea. Bhabha’s (1987) analysis of colonial ‘mimicry’ informs my identification of the contradictory quality of this perspective. As a critique of the legacy of postwar education policy from the perspective of a contemporary generation of village leaders, the article is also intended as a response to Pels’s (1997: 178) call for “more ethnographies of decolonization.”
Art · Colonialism · Ethnology · Linguistics · Literature · Mimicry · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Sociology · Anthropology · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Gender Studies · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,14 |
| Citation span | 1998 - 2024 (27) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |