When was modernity in Melanesia

Bibliographic Data

ID3085352
AuthorsEric Hirsch (0000-0003-0365-9372)
Year2001
Volume9
Issue02
Publication date2001-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0964-0282 • E-ISSN: 1469-8676
PublisherBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1017/s0964028201000106
OpenAlexW2097338113
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited14

This article uses ethnographic material from the Fuyuge of highland Papua and other Melanesian peoples critically to examine the attribution of modernity to Melanesia. Of related concern to this critical focus is that of periodisation, and the periodisation of modernity in Melanesia. Each ethnographic instance that is drawn upon is situated further in the historical past. The Melanesian past is used in this manner in order to address two questions: is it possible to periodise modernity in the Melanesia context; and, if so, when was modernity in Melanesia? The answers to both these considerations suggest that modernity cannot be likened to mass consumption or the individual, theoretical assumptions prevalent in current depictions of modernity in Melanesia. Rather, modernity is a temporal predicament connected to formations of political (state) power and its agendas of local intervention

Epistemology · Modernity · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Philosophy

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