Native Cultures Of The Pacific Islands

Even before Western contact, the Pacific Islanders inhabited nearly every island north and east of Australia - a thousand distinctive peoples. This overview of the cultures of the Pacific Islands treats their physical setting, prehistory, activities, and social relations before European influences subjected them to radical changes. It is intended mainly for college-level students in courses dealing with the region, but Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands will also be enjoyed by those interested in the Pacific Islands and by visitors to the Pacific. The book is an abridgement of the author’s larger, two-volume work, Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands. Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands contains a number of maps and illustrations from the larger work.

Even before Western contact, the Pacific Islanders inhabited nearly every island north and east of Australia - a thousand distinctive peoples. This overview of the cultures of the Pacific Islands treats their physical setting, prehistory, activities, and social relations before European influences subjected them to radical changes. It is intended mainly for college-level students in courses dealing with the region, but Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands will also be enjoyed by those interested in the Pacific Islands and by visitors to the Pacific. The book is an abridgement of the author’s larger, two-volume work, Oceania: The Native Cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands. Native Cultures of the Pacific Islands contains a number of maps and illustrations from the larger work.

"Although there have been a number of recent reference titles on the history and culture of Native Americans, Gale's encyclopedia offers exceptional scope, clarity, and content. Covering almost 400 North American tribes, each essay contains information on both the historical and contemporary issues for the tribe. All entries begin with an introduction about the tribal roots, historic and current location, population data, and language family. This is followed by segments covering the history, religious beliefs, language, buildings, means of subsistence, clothing, healing practices, customs, oral literature, and current tribal issues. Several black-and-white illustrations and bibliographies for further research are included. A cumulative index of tribes, relevant nonnative peoples, historic dates and battles, treaties, legislation, associations, and religious groups adds value."--"Outstanding Reference Sources: the 1999 Selection of New Titles," American Libraries, May 1999. Comp. by the Reference Sources Committee, RUSA, ALA.

Tourism is vital to the economies of most Pacific nations and as such is an important site for the meaningful production of shared and disputed cultural values and practices. This is especially the case when tourism intersects with other important arenas for cultural production, both directly and indirectly. Touring Pacific Cultures captures the central importance of tourism to the visual, material and performed cultures of the Pacific region. In this volume, we propose to explore new directions in understanding how culture is defined, produced, experienced and sustained through tourism-related practices across that region. We ask, how is cultural value, ownership, performance and commodification negotiated and experienced in actual lived practice as it moves with people across the Pacific? ‘This collection is a welcome addition to tourism studies, or perhaps we should say post- or para-tourism. The essays bring out many facets and experiences too quickly bundled under a single label and focused exclusively on “destinations” visited by “outsiders”. Tourism, we see here, actively involves many different populations, societies, and economies, a range of local/global/regional engagements that can be both destructive and creative. Western outsiders aren’t the only ones on the move. Unequal power, (neo)colonial exploitation and capitalist commodification are very much part of the picture. But so are desire, adventure, pleasure, cultural reinvention and economic development. The effect, overall, is an attitude of alert, critical ambivalence with respect to a proliferating historical phenomenon. A bumpy and rewarding ride.’ — James Clifford, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Santa Cruz