Remembrance of Pacific Pasts: An Invitation to Remake History

How Does One Describe The Pacific's Pasts? The Easy Confidence Historians Once Had In Writing About The Region Has Disappeared In The Turmoil Surrounding Today's Politics Of Representation. Earlier Narratives That Focused On What Happened When Are Now Accused Of Encouraging Myths Of Progress. Remembrance Of Pacific Pasts Takes A Different Course. It Acknowledges History's Multiplicity And Selectivity, Its Inability To Represent The Past In Its Entirety As It Really Was And Instead Offers Points Of Reference For Thinking With And About The Region's Pasts. It Encourages Readers To Participate In The Historical Process By Constructing Alternative Histories That Draw On The Volume's Chapters.the Book's Thirty-four Contributions, Written By A Range Of Authors Spanning A Variety Of Styles And Disciplines, Are Organized Into Four Sections. The First Presents Frames Of Reference For Analyzing The Problems, Poetics, And Politics Involved In Addressing The Region's Pasts Today. The Second Considers Early Islander-western Contact Focusing On How Each Side Sought To Physically And Symbolically Control The Other. The Third Deals With The Colonial Dynamics Of The Region: The Tensions Of Empire That Permeated Imperial Rule In The Pacific. The Fourth Explores The Region's Postcolonial Politics Through A Discussion Of The Varied Ways Independence And Dependence Overlap Today.remembrance Of Pacific Pasts Includes Many Of The Region's Most Distinguished Authors Such As Albert Wendt, Greg Dening, Epeli Hau'ofa, Marshall Sahlins, Patricia Grace, And Nicholas Thomas. In Addition, It Features Chapters By Well-known Writers From Outside Pacific Studies -- Edward Said, James Clifford, Richard White,and Gyan Prakash -- Which Help Place The Region's Dynamics In Comparative Perspective. By Moving Pacific History Beyond Traditional, Empirical Narratives To New Ways For Conversing About History, By Drawing On Current Debates Surrounding The Politics Of Representation To Offer Different Ways For Thinking About The Region's Pasts, This Work Has Relevance For Students And Scholars Of History, Anthropology, And Cultural Studies Both Within And Beyond The Region. Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface: A Belauan Story Of Creation -- Acknowledgments -- An Invitation -- Section One Frames Of Reference -- Introduction -- Making Histories -- 1 Inside Us The Dead -- 2 Releasing The Voices Historicizing Colonial Encounters In The Pacific -- 3 Starting From Trash -- 4 Indigenous Knowledge And Academic Imperialism -- Valuing The Pacific—an Interview With James Clifford -- Section Two The Dynamics Of Contact -- Introduction -- Possessing Others -- 5 Possessing Tahiti -- 6 Remembering First Contact Realities And Romance -- 7 Constructing “pacific” Peoples -- A View From Afar (north America)—a Commentary By Richard White -- Section Three Colonial Engagements -- Introduction -- Colonial Entanglements -- 8 Hawai‘i In The Early Nineteenth Century The Kingdom And The Kingship -- 9 Deaths On The Mountain An Account Of Police Violence In The Highlands Of Papua New Guinea -- Tensions Of Empire -- 10 Colonial Conversions Difference, Hierarchy, And History In Early Twentieth-century Evangelical Propaganda -- 11 The French Way In Plantation Systems -- Styles Of Dominance -- 12 The New Zealand Wars And The Myth Of Conquest -- 13 Theorizing Mâori Women’s Lives: Paradoxes Of The Colonial Male Gaze -- 14 Conqueror -- World War Ii -- 15 World War Ii In Kiribati -- 16 Barefoot Benefactors A Study Of Japanese Views Of Melanesians -- A View From Afar (south Asia)—an Interview With Gyan Prakash -- Section Four “postcolonial” Politics -- Introduction -- Continuities And Discontinuities -- 17 Decolonization -- 18 Colonised People -- 19 My Blood -- 20 Custom And The Way Of The Land Past And Present In Vanuatu And Fiji -- 21 The Relationship Between The United States And The Native Hawaiian People A Case Of Spouse Abuse -- Identity And Empowerment -- 22 Moe‘uhane -- 23 Simply Chamorro Tales Of Demise And Survival In Guam -- 24 Mixed Blood -- 25 Ngati Kangaru -- Integrating “the Past” Into “the Present” -- 26 Our Pacific -- 27 Treaty-related Research And Versions Of New Zealand History -- 28 Cook, Lono, Obeyesekere, And Sahlins -- A View From Afar (middle East)—an Interview With Edward Said -- Epilogue Pasts To Remember -- Abbreviations And Newspapers -- Bibliography -- List Of Contributors -- Index Robert Borofsky. Funded By Robert F. Borofsky In English.