Chiefs Today
Traditional Pacific Leadership and the Postcolonial State
Published on 1. February 1998
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-0-8047-2849-2 (ISBN)
Description
Thirty-five years after the first new Pacific states gained their independence, traditional leaders remain important political actors throughout the region. The political environs of the South Pacific, freshly populated with presidents, prime ministers, members of parliament, and local judiciary officers, are also increasingly crowded with newly visible chiefs. Far from being premodern relics, the chiefs who operate within modern Pacific states today figure significantly in attempts to fashion national identities and manage the direction of political and economic development. This volume presents detailed analyses of the accommodations between chiefs and states in thirteen Pacific societies. In some states, traditional perquisites and political authority have overlapped so that the state is a contemporary form of chiefdom.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Palo Alto
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1 map
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
630 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8047-2849-2 (9780804728492)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Contributors; 1. Introduction: Chiefs today Lamont Lindstrom and Geoffrey M. White; 2. The persistence of Chiefly authority in Western Samoa Cluny Macpherson; 3. Rank and leadership in Tonga Kerry James; 4. The kingly - populist divergence in Tongan and Western Samoan Chiefly systems Robert W. Franco; 5. The reemergence of Maori Chiefs: 'devolution' as a strategy to maintain tribal authority Toon van Meijl; 6. Chiefs, politics, and the power of tradition in contemporary Fiji Stephanie Lawson; 7. Ritual status and power politics in modern rotuma Alan Howard and Jan Rensel; 8. Traditional leaders today in the federated states of micronesia Eve C. Pinsker; 9. A micronesian chamber of Chiefs? The 1990 federated states of micornesia constitutional convention Glenn Petersen; 10. Irooj Ro Ad: measures of Chiefly ideology and practice in the Marshall Isalnds Laurence M. Carucci; 11. Chiefs in Vanuatu today Lamont Lindstrom; 12. The discourse of Chiefs: notes on a Melanesian society Geoffrey M. White; 13. Tuesday's Chiefs revisited Roger M. Keesing; 14. Constructing and contesting Chiefly authority in contemporary Tana Toraja, Indonesia Kathleen M. Adams; 15. Conclusions: Chiefs and states today Peter Larmour; Notes; Bibliography; Index.