Marshall Sahlins Big-Man, Chief: Political Types In Melanesia

In the early 16th century, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan named the largest ocean in the world ‘O Mar Pacífico’ meaning peaceful sea. What Magellan didn’t know is that his arrival would mark a fateful new era for the inhabitants of the pacific and forever disrupt whatever peace they had before. In “The Other One-Third of the Globe,” anthropologist Ben Finney explains the history the habitation of the Pacific islands. He looks at the complete human history of the islands, not just the colonial period, which was unusual but very refreshing.

In Ancient Hawaii, King Kamehameha the Great unified the Hawaiian Islands. After Kamehameha unified the islands he rewarded his loyal followers making them chiefs and letting them rule over the land. Then after Kamehameha the Great died his son Kamehameha III did very little to change the land ownership in Hawaii. But Kamehameha III divided the land into two separate categories with the Act of 1848 “The Great Mahele”. There was the Crown Lands that he kept for himself and the Government lands which were to be split between the commoners, government, and the chiefs. The Great Mahele of 1848 had social, political, and economical effects on the Native Hawaiians.

In 400 C.E. the Hawaiian islands were settled by Polynesian voyagers.They had each island ruled by different chief’s and conflict was normal for them.At the same time they still had law’s and a class system not influenced by foreigners until captain cook arrived at Kealakekua Bay,hawaii in January,18,1778.But the most important person in Hawaiian history is king Kahmehameha he concord all the islands and became ruler of the whole island chain.Also he was an expert leader, politician,intelligent and caring about his subjects.

The, “Sorrow of the Lonely and the Burning of the Dancers”, is a ethnography written by anthropologist Edward Schieffelin, derived from his fieldwork with the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea. The main focus of the book of the book is how many of the fundamental notions that are implicit in Kaluli culture are found in the Gisaro ceremony, which Schieffelin uses as, “a lens through which to view some of the fundamental issues of Kaluli life and society” (p1).

I felt that this story,”Confronting Inequility” was to complicated for a everyday reader to follow. I found my self having to go and ready the article two to three times in certain parts. I wasn’t able to understand what he was trying to get across. Even though I understood the vocalualry he used I believe he could f done a better job in explain his thoughts and theories the had in how

The people of Hawaii and other Pacific Island Nation groups have experienced great injustice from their colonial powers and the acts of imperialism. Lands were seized, cultural practices banned, language lost, and people were even forced to move away from their homes for the purpose of bomb testing. The United States and other countries abroad sent out representatives to do their work for them; in return their future actions would be justified in describing the Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders as savages that need to have wider powers enforced upon them; thus resulting in a tangled web of political mythologies.

In this chapter Jared Diamond describes how two societies the Maori and the Moriori were almost whipped out by the environment and in some cases each other. These two societies had some of the same ancestors but the Maori were way more developed than the Moriori. In the chapter Diamond explains how they were separated but developed in opposite directions. Diamond then goes on to explaining how the islands these societies lived on were different from each either. The next main point of this chapter was how population and politics were worked out on these islands. It is shown how many people lived on each island from populations as little as 5 people per square mile to 1,100 people per square mile. Diamonds last topic explains how both of these societies needed to advance their tools in order to survive the conditions they lived in.

For the Polynesian people, Maori is able to develop a more complex economy and culture system than Moriori, because of the availability of new environment allows them to farm. With farming they can have surplus, which allowed them to establish their community to develop denser population, support army to specialize in fighting. Further more, with a larger group, they develop strong leadership and political organization.

Chapter one, “Fieldwork among the Maisin”, describes how anthropologist John Barker, author of Ancestral Lines, goes to Uiaku New Guinea to study the Maisin people. His specific goals were to study how a people can maintain a cultural identify in a modernizing world and how they can live without destroying their environment. Barker first arrived in New Guinea in 1982 where he examined “how the Maisin make a living, organize social interactions, conceptualize the spiritual world, and meet the opportunities and tragedies of life” (Barker 2016:2). He studied the tapa cloth, a fabric made from bark, that the Maisin use as a connection to their ancestral past and to help define their culture. Barker discovered that the Maisin have faith in traditional methods and do what they can to preserve that lifestyle. Barker‘s work went

Actions were taken such as King Kalakaua’s travels around the world, the effort of society during that time to preserve the Hawaiian culture and even efforts urged by those who did not acknowledge Hawaii’s independence as a nation were formulated. (b2, e1, g1). King Kalakaua has had a controversial rise to power and half the people supported him because he wanted to bring back culture (g4). The year of Kalakaua’s accession, dangers of dominance became an issue, but King Kalakaua did not want to give in to power just yet (j4). The issue between who should rightfully govern Hawaii has been an important conflict in Hawaii’s history and it called for a compromise to be made. When missionaries came to Hawaii, they did not support Hawaiian culture and monarchy. Others, such as the Americans, also thought of Hawaiians as unfit to rule their own people, so they drafted compromises to overthrow the monarchy (g4). America pushed towards annexing Hawaii and created treaties and constitutions which contributed to, not only the overthrow of the monarchy, but also the dying of Hawaiian culture (j5, o22, q3). The Hawaiian League was composed of a group of people who worked and made demands to king Kalakaua (q3) they knew that the King would not approve of their ideas for a change in sovereignty willingly, so they used violence against him. They unfairly challenged King Kalakaua for power and a constitutional government.

Kamehameha the Great was a remarkable leader who was born and raised in secrecy because of complications until his early teenage years, where he was accepted back into his community. Kamehameha was raised to become a skillful warrior with perspective. This became useful to Kamehameha when war had broken out. The ali’is of Hawai’i raced to claim control over the islands. By the end of the sparring, Kamehameha’s enemies had either been annihilated in war, offered as a sacrifice, or claimed by nature—except for Kaumauali’i of Kauai. However, instead of battling for dominance over Hawai’i, the two leaders came to a consensus and Hawai’i was given peace for the first time in years. During his rule, Kamehameha—with the help

Modern day power originates from the mind in that we give certain figures power based upon man-made forms of value or worth like money. The definition of power has fluctuated throughout time, and while the past may have emphasized the more violent aspects, today, we have shifted towards a more control based interpretation. Both Michael Foucault and John Berger delve into the idea of power and its functionality. Based on their texts, in our current socio-cultural setting, power is best exploited when the concept behind the power is deindividualized for many purposes, internalized by the people, and integrated throughout society to the point that its origins is mystified.

These two different tribes are has something’s in common when it come to their economy. The both has a woman that takes of the house. The women make sure that the men and the kids eat. The make sure the house is up to part. They also do little sides jobs, such as gardening. They both does trading. When they trade with someone, they trade to benefit them. For example Yanomamo trades for cotton. They do this because cotton could do multiple thins, such as clothing, warmth, and bedding. This benefit them a lot. Hawaiians trades in benefit also. They trade with food to keep the people from starving. The way they are living is the same also. Both of the tribes like to go fishing. Fishing is the main things these two tribes likes to do. Another

“Ancestral lines” by John Barker is a book about the anthropologist’s experience in the Uiaku village located in Papua New Guinea. In the first chapter, Barker tells his readers briefly about him and his education, his and his wife’s experience with the Maisin community, and talks in great detail about the Maisin and their culture in the Uiaku village.

The three sections discuss the impact of systematic dispossession of Maori land in Aotearoa New Zealand during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The first section, Wynyard draws on Marx’s theory of primitive accumulation. Primitive accumulation in the New Zealand context is perceived as an alienation of Maori land for colonial settlers. Likewise, it represents a countless amount of force, fraud, and oppression towards Maori in order to operate a capital accumulation. In other words, it is a form of cultural theft in stealing Maori lands and resources (Heim, 1998). Thus, primitive accumulation causes indigenous Maori left with nothing besides selling themselves as labor to work for the European civilization. This concept is similar to how capitalism was formed in the early colonization in Europe through the same progress of stealing the land and the development of agriculture. The second section, Wynyard covers the case of the Native Land Court where he titled the section as the Theft made legal. The Native Land Court is an intention of freeing up the so-called Theft in obtaining legal act through creating the law in a way to benefit the settlers. The main mean of this act is to maintain the system of British law. This law is launched to completely destroy and ignore the Maori laws through establishing courts, institution and land acts that permit them to