Pacific
Islands
Anthropology 238 Dr. A. Pomponio
Spring 2003 St Lawrence University
Class Schedule and Readings
This course will survey the
peoples and customs of the Pacific region known as Oceania. This area ranges from the lush semitropical
islands of Hawaii through the mountains of New Guinea. The culture areas of Polynesia, Micronesia,
and Melanesia will be defined according to differences in geography, human
physical features, languages, and systems of religion, politics, economics and
social organization. In addition, we
will pursue selected problems in cultural anthropological fieldwork,
modernization and development as these cultures struggle with worldwide political
and economic processes.
Books: The following are required texts and are
available for purchase at the SLU Bookstore.
Alkire, W., Lamotrek Atoll
Lockwood, Harding, Wallace, Contemporary Pacific Societies (LHW)
Oliver, D., The Pacific Islands
O’Meara, T., Samoan Planters…
Pomponio, A., Seagulls Don't Fly Into the Bush...
Additional materials: Pacific Map
Set (purchase with books)
Readings Packet (purchase in Piskor 114)
Important Information
Office hours: By appointment.
Office: Piskor 213
Tel.: 229-5797
Requirements
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25%
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3 Hourly Exams Averaged
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25%
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4 Book Reviews Averaged
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25%
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Comprehensive Final Exam
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25%
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Attendance, Preparation
and Quality of Class Participation
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READING SCHEDULE
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Week 1
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Jan. 20
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Introduction and overview; Class aims,
requirements, rationale
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Jan. 22
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Historical background, geography
Diamond,
Guns, Germs and Steel,
pp. 10-52, including selections titled:
“Why
is World History Like an Onion?”
“Yali’s
Question.”
“Up
to the Starting Line.”
Oliver: Chapters 1-2
Lockwood: "Introduction." LHW.
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MELANESIA
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Week 2
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Jan. 27
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Economics, Trade, Exchange
Sahlins: "Poor Man, Rich Man,
Big-Man, Chief: Political
Types in Melanesia and Polynesia." RP
Counts,
D.: "Too Many Bananas..." RP
Pomponio,
Begin if possible.
Film:
Ongka's Big Moka.
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Jan. 29
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Film Discussion/The Vitiaz Strait
Trade System
Harding: "Trade in Northeast
New Guinea." RP
Pomponio,
Seagulls: Introduction - Chapter 2.
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Week 3
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Feb. 3
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Cosmology, Politics and Social Control:
"Bigmen" in Siassi
Pomponio:
Chs. 3-6
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Feb. 5
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Cont.
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Week 4
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Feb.
10
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The
quest for cash and The Vagaries of Market economics
Pomponio:
finish
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Feb.
12
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Finney:
"From the Stone Age to the Age of Corporate
Takeovers." LHW #7
Sexton:
"Pigs, Pearlshells and 'Women's Work': Collective Response to Change
in Highland Papua New Guinea."
LHW #8.
Film:
Black Harvest
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Feb. 14
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Book Review #1 Due
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Week 5
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Feb. 17
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Review:
Bring 10-15 vocabulary and 1-3 essay questions,
typed, to class.
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Feb. 19
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Test #1, in class, no makeups.
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“DISCOVERY,” CONQUEST AND COLONIALISM
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Week 6
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European Contact and Colonial Domination
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Feb. 24
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Oliver: Chs. 3-5
LHW
pp. 19-20.
Film:
First Contact
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Feb.
26
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World
War II
Oliver:
Chs. 6-9
Film:
Angels of War
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Week 7
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Colonial and Post-Colonial Structures
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Mar. 3
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Perry,
R.: From
Time Immemorial:
Indigenous Peoples and State Systems, excerpts
XC
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Mar. 5
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Lindstrom: "The Politics of Ethnography: Americans on Tanna."
Handout
XC
Film: John
Frum and the Big Death
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Week 8
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Mar. 10
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Film: Rising
Waters
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Mar. 12
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Film: The
Navigators
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Week 9
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Spring Break—Take Oliver With you
and Finish.
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MICRONESIA
Week
10
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Mar.
24
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Introduction,
Micronesian Economies, Leadership, Politics
Bascom:
"Ponopean Prestige Economy." RP
Alkire,
Chs. 1-2
Film: Lamotrek
Atoll
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Mar.
26 |
Social Organization and Survival Alkire,
Chs. 3-5 Peterson: "Some Pohnpei Strategies for Economic Survival." LHW #12
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Week
11 |
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Mar.
31 |
Contemporary Issues in Micronesia Alkire,
Finish Kiste:
"New Political Statuses in American Micronesia."
LHW #5. Peterson: "The Projection From
Pohnpei."
RP
Oliver: Chs. 17, 18 (pp. 268-280)
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Apr. 2
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Review:
bring 10-15 vocabulary and 3 essay questions,
typed, to class.
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Apr. 4
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Book Review Due
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Week
12
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Apr. 7
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Test #2, in class, no make-ups
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POLYNESIA
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Apr. 9
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Diamond,
“A Natural Experiment in History.”
Pp. 53-66.
RP
Review
class notes on theories of development
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Week
13
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Apr. 14 |
Samoa O’Meara,
Chs. 1-3 Review
Sahlins from RP
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Apr. 16 |
Contemporary Social
and Political Organization: Samoan Matai System O’Meara
Chs. 4-5 Shore,
from Sala ‘ilua…,Ch. 11, “Conflict in the Context of
Social Relations.”RP Film: Samoan Chiefs
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CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC ISSUES
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Week 14
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Apr.
21
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Contemporary Issues in Samoan “development” O’Meara,finish
Shankman,
“A Samoan Exodus.”
LHW #10
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Apr.
23 |
Cultural Identity in a Post-Colonial World Trask:
"Cultures in Collision:
Hawaii and England, 1778.” RP
Finney: "A Long Voyage." Handout.
Nat.
Geog’c article on Native Hawaiian Movement, XC.
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Apr. 25
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Book Review #4 Due
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Week
15
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Apr.
28
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Global
warming, nuclear testing, and toxic waste dumps
“Cashing
in on Nuclear Waste.” RP
“At
Nuclear Ground Zero...” RP
“America’s
Painful Atomic Secrets.” RP
“Freedom
at Last!...” RP
Film:
Micronesia: Living
With the Bomb
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Apr. 30
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The Personal Price of "Economic
Development."
Counts: "The Fist, the Stick,
and the Bottle of Bleach:
Wife Bashing and Female Suicide in a Papua
New Guinea Society."
LHW #16.
North: "The Killing Field."
RP
Marshall: "A Pacific Haze: Alcohol and Drugs in Oceania." LHW #17
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Course wrap-up/review. Bring vocabulary and essays as directed in class,
to class, typed.
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***FINAL EXAMINATION: Monday 5 May, 8:30 a.m.***
A Note on Expectations and Requirements:
This course will combine lectures with class discussion
where possible. This kind of format is
only possible when all of you are present and prepared. Your attendance, preparation and quality of
class participation will be graded (see p. 1).
Each unexcused absence deducts
15 points from a theoretical 100-point scale, or 1.5 from a possible
4.0; two unexcused absences results in a score of 0.0 for attendance (about 8%
of your overall grade). I expect each
of you to keep up with the readings, take notes, and come to class prepared to
discuss them and ask questions, and not dump the burden onto one or two
people. I have designed the assignments
to help you to budget your time and (I hope) prevent this.
I expect to receive written assignments ON OR BEFORE THE DUE DATE. In fairness to the entire class, I do not give extensions or make-up exams
except under the most dire of circumstances:
please do not embarrass us both by asking to be the exception. If you belong to a sports or other
extra-curricular organization (e.g., Laurentian Singers), see me to help you
organize assignments: in fairness to
your classmates, they are due before you leave. I reserve the right not to grade late papers.
Although this is an anthropology course, it is being
taught in English. Grammar,
punctuation, spelling, logic, sophistication and cogency of argument all count,
and will be considered in your grade.
Upload:
4/23/2003
