Sinuous Objects

Some 40 years ago, Pacific anthropology was dominated by debates about ‘women’s wealth’. These exchanges were generated by Annette Weiner’s (1976) critical reappraisal of Bronisław Malinowski’s classic work on the Trobriand Islands, and her observations that women’s production of ‘wealth’ (banana le...

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collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Some 40 years ago, Pacific anthropology was dominated by debates about ‘women’s wealth’. These exchanges were generated by Annette Weiner’s (1976) critical reappraisal of Bronisław Malinowski’s classic work on the Trobriand Islands, and her observations that women’s production of ‘wealth’ (banana leaf bundles and skirts) for elaborate transactions in mortuary rituals occupied a central role in Trobriand matrilineal cosmology and social organisation. This volume brings the debates about women’s wealth back to the fore by critically revisiting and engaging with ideas about gender and materiality, value, relationality and the social life and agency of things. The chapters, interspersed by three poems, evoke the sinuous materiality of the different objects made by women across the Pacific, and the intimate relationship between these objects of value and sensuous, gendered bodies. In the Epilogue, Professor Margaret Jolly observes how the volume also ‘trace[s] a more abstract sinuosity in the movement of these things through time and place, as they coil through different regimes of value … The eight chapters … trace winding paths across the contemporary Pacific, from the Trobriands in Milne Bay, to Maisin, Wanigela and Korafe in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, through the islands of Tonga to diasporic Tongan and Cook Islander communities in New Zealand’. This comparative perspective elucidates how women’s wealth is defined, valued and contested in current exchanges, bride-price debates, church settings, development projects and the challenges of living in diaspora. Importantly, this reveals how women themselves preserve the different values and meanings in gift-giving and exchanges, despite processes of commodification that have resulted in the decline or replacement of ‘women’s wealth’.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-301862025-07-30T10:21:38Z Sinuous Objects Hermkens, Anna-Karina Lepani, Katherine women's wealth pacific gender anthropology Barkcloth Colocasia esculenta Koloa Hawaii Maisin language Pandanus Trobriand Islands Wanigela Oro Province thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1Q Other geographical groupings: Oceans and seas, historical, political etc::1QR Groupings linked by seas::1QRP Pacific Rim countries thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1Q Other geographical groupings: Oceans and seas, historical, political etc::1QR Groupings linked by seas::1QRP Pacific Rim countries thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology Some 40 years ago, Pacific anthropology was dominated by debates about ‘women’s wealth’. These exchanges were generated by Annette Weiner’s (1976) critical reappraisal of Bronisław Malinowski’s classic work on the Trobriand Islands, and her observations that women’s production of ‘wealth’ (banana leaf bundles and skirts) for elaborate transactions in mortuary rituals occupied a central role in Trobriand matrilineal cosmology and social organisation. This volume brings the debates about women’s wealth back to the fore by critically revisiting and engaging with ideas about gender and materiality, value, relationality and the social life and agency of things. The chapters, interspersed by three poems, evoke the sinuous materiality of the different objects made by women across the Pacific, and the intimate relationship between these objects of value and sensuous, gendered bodies. In the Epilogue, Professor Margaret Jolly observes how the volume also ‘trace[s] a more abstract sinuosity in the movement of these things through time and place, as they coil through different regimes of value … The eight chapters … trace winding paths across the contemporary Pacific, from the Trobriands in Milne Bay, to Maisin, Wanigela and Korafe in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, through the islands of Tonga to diasporic Tongan and Cook Islander communities in New Zealand’. This comparative perspective elucidates how women’s wealth is defined, valued and contested in current exchanges, bride-price debates, church settings, development projects and the challenges of living in diaspora. Importantly, this reveals how women themselves preserve the different values and meanings in gift-giving and exchanges, despite processes of commodification that have resulted in the decline or replacement of ‘women’s wealth’. 2021-02-10T12:58:18Z 2017-10-09 00:00:00 2020-04-01T13:24:58Z 2017 book 637818 OCN: 1006384871 http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/31141 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/30186 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/31141/1/637818.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/31141/1/637818.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/31141/1/637818.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/31141/1/637818.pdf ANU Press 975ba519-3ce2-4517-95bf-b847729fbcf1 322 open access
spellingShingle women's wealth
pacific
gender
anthropology
Barkcloth
Colocasia esculenta
Koloa
Hawaii
Maisin language
Pandanus
Trobriand Islands
Wanigela
Oro Province
thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1Q Other geographical groupings: Oceans and seas, historical, political etc::1QR Groupings linked by seas::1QRP Pacific Rim countries
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1Q Other geographical groupings: Oceans and seas, historical, political etc::1QR Groupings linked by seas::1QRP Pacific Rim countries
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
Sinuous Objects
title Sinuous Objects
title_full Sinuous Objects
title_fullStr Sinuous Objects
title_full_unstemmed Sinuous Objects
title_short Sinuous Objects
title_sort sinuous objects
topic women's wealth
pacific
gender
anthropology
Barkcloth
Colocasia esculenta
Koloa
Hawaii
Maisin language
Pandanus
Trobriand Islands
Wanigela
Oro Province
thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1Q Other geographical groupings: Oceans and seas, historical, political etc::1QR Groupings linked by seas::1QRP Pacific Rim countries
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1Q Other geographical groupings: Oceans and seas, historical, political etc::1QR Groupings linked by seas::1QRP Pacific Rim countries
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
topic_facet women's wealth
pacific
gender
anthropology
Barkcloth
Colocasia esculenta
Koloa
Hawaii
Maisin language
Pandanus
Trobriand Islands
Wanigela
Oro Province
thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1Q Other geographical groupings: Oceans and seas, historical, political etc::1QR Groupings linked by seas::1QRP Pacific Rim countries
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::1 Place qualifiers::1Q Other geographical groupings: Oceans and seas, historical, political etc::1QR Groupings linked by seas::1QRP Pacific Rim countries
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
url 637818