emory university · 2015. 6. 8. · outstandingcontribution. mymain criticism is that, by focusing...
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BOOK REVIEWS
or other writers in articulation with thefindings and perspectives here developed. As it stands, the volume presentsa fine blend of quality ethnography,areal focus, and theoretical penetration. It is a vital companion piece toAndrew Strathern's edited Inequality inNew Guinea Highlands Societies,engaging many of the same issues, butfrom an opposed areal and theoreticalperspective. In the best academic tradition, this opposition is not polemic orultimately negative, but dialectical andprogressive.
BRUCE M. KNAUFT
Emory University
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Vengeance Is Their Reply: Blood Feudsand Homicides on Bellona Island, PartI: Conditions Underlying GenerationsofBloodshed; Part 2: Oral Traditions,by Rolf Kuschel. Language and Culture of Rennell and Bellona Islands,Volume 7, 1989. Copenhagen: DanskPsykologisk Forlag. ISBN 87-77070164,289 pp, illustrations, references,indexes. US$90.00.
Oral narratives describing the historyof Bellona Island, a Polynesian outlierin the Solomon Islands, recount that195 homicides took place before thepacification of the island in 1938. Thisworks out to an average of 9.3 homicides per generation in a populationthat was probably never much morethan 450 people. These homicides werepart of a pattern of feuding that sometimes continued for generations: onefeud is described as involving twentyeight separate encounters over thecourse of several hundred years.
In Vengeance Is Their Reply, Danishsocial scientist Rolf Kuschel recordsand analyzes these oral narrativesabout traditional feuding on Bellona.This book is the seventh volume in aseries of books on the language andculture of Rennell and Bellona islands.Over the past thirty years, these Polynesian outliers have been systematically studied by a team of Danish andAmerican researchers and are amongthe most thoroughly studied social systems in the Pacific. In a period whenanthropology is given to interpretationand most publishers are parsimoniousin printing materials for specializedaudiences, the publications on Rennelland Bellona provide remarkablydetailed ethnographic and linguisticinformation. Many volumes in thisseries include extended samples of Rennell-Bellona texts, both in the vernacular and in English translation. Kuschel's book continues this scholarlytradition and is another important contribution to the ethnography ofOceania.
Part I of Vengeance Is Their Replydescribes the cultural and social factorsthat cause Bellona's homicides andfeuding. Part 2 includes vernaculartranscriptions and English translationsof 150 oral narratives that describethese feuds and form the basis for theanalysis in part 1. Kuschel criticizesmost anthropological studies of feuding for their lack of detailed and longterm data. He explains one very admirable reason for including the narrativetexts: "Thus by publishing the Bellonese material in its entirety, I want tomake the primary data available toother scientists who, from other theoretical starting points, would like to
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THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC. FALL 1990
reanalyze it or use it in comparativestudies" (16).
Kuschel spent a total of about eighteen months between 1968 and 1983
researching this topic. In addition, heuses the expertise and information ofother researchers who have studiedRennell and Bellona society and culture. His main conclusion is that Bellona's feuds were not the result of competition for limited economic or landresources. Rather, they were causedand maintained by cultural values thatemphasize reputation and prestige, ofboth individuals and social groups.Moreover, Kuschel emphasizes thatBellona's feuding is socioculturally rulegoverned and patterned (for example,women and children were usuallyspared and there was respect for certain sanctuaries).
Both parts 1 and 2 should beincluded in any library that is seriousabout maintaining its Pacific collection. Part 1 should be read by peopleinterested in Polynesian ethnographybecause it offers a rare view of traditional patterns of feuding, conflict, anddisputes. Probably, with a moderateamount of supervision from theinstructor, both parts can be recommended to advanced undergraduatestudents in anthropology. The texts inpart 2 provide raw material for re-analysis, for both professionals and students.
Kuschel's presentation is straightforward, and his writing style is readable. There are, however, occasionalsentences that would be improved byfurther editing. The charts and figures(71 in part 1 and 40 in part 2) are clearand help explain the discussion in thetext. I had minor problems with some
of his terminology and his explanationsof certain features of the social system.For example, I found misleading hisuse of the terms social strata and stratification to refer to relationships basedon the achievement of prestige andrenown. Although I have some background in studying Polynesian socialorganization, I did not understand hisdiscussion of Bellonese "clans," "subclans," and "lineages."
Part 1 begins with a brief review ofthe anthropological literature on feuding, a useful explanation of hisapproach to the issue, and then a discussion of his research methods. Inchapters 2 and 3, he provides some general background about Bellonese sociallife, including land tenure, socialorganization, and religion. In chapters4 through 7, Kuschel describes howfeuds develop and the conventions andattitudes that determine how feuds aremanaged. Chapter 8 summarizes thebook; some readers will want to readthis chapter before starting the book,because it provides the clearest statement of Kuschel's argument.
Given the perimeter of the problemKuschel set for himself, this book is anoutstanding contribution. My maincriticism is that, by focusing exclusively on the narratives and eventsbefore 1938, Kuschel limited the book'scontribution to the understanding ofbroader issues concerning conflict anddisputes. There is only a very briefexplanation of why Christianity andthe British protectorate's governmentwere able to stop the feuding. Homicides after 1938 are briefly mentioned,and then, without sufficient explanation, Kuschel excludes them from theanalysis. It is not clear whether or not
BOOK REVIEWS
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Cultural Alternatives and a FeministAnthropology: An Analysis ofCulturally Constructed Gender Interests inPapua New Guinea, by FrederickErrington and Deborah Gewertz.Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1987. ISBN 0-521-33492-6, xi +185 pp, illustrations, notes, references,index. £20.
some old feuds continue to the presentin nonviolent ways (ridicule, adultery,land disputes, song taunts, gossip).Kuschel doesn't explain whether theconcern with personal and group reputation, which motivated the disputes informer times, still exists at present.Moreover, I wasn't completely satisfiedwith Kuschel's argument that feudingdid not result from ~ompetitionoverland use and resources. This conclusion would be more forceful if itincluded an analysis of disputes (orlack of them) over resources on Bellonasince 1938. On the few occasions whenKuschel does provide brief discussionsof present-day conflict, they areenlightening and help explain important factors affecting motivations andallegiances in traditional feuding.
Readers will be grateful for whatthere is. Perhaps a study of conflict anddisputes since 1938 will be in a futurevolume of the Rennell and Bellonaseries. If so, I hope the authors willinclude texts. In any case, the presentvolume provides a rare and detailedanalysis of the oral narratives thatrecord feuding in a pre-Christian Polynesian society.
WILLIAM W. DONNER
Kutztown University
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In this study of the Chambri, a Sepikgroup of Papua New Guinea,Errington and Gewertz reconsiderMargaret Mead's work on what shecalled sex roles, offering instead theiranalysis of gender interests. Gewertz isa Sepik specialist; Errington hasworked in several other areas, including island Melanesia.
This book invokes a number ofdualisms-in addition to contrastingtheories of male-female relations, pairsof ethnographers, societies, and generations figure into its makeup. The mixture of the personal and the sociological, the concrete and the abstract,makes the book enjoyable reading, butsometimes raises issues that are notanswered. It is not always clearwhether a particular feature should beregarded as style or argument. Themonograph's challenge to conventionsis readily seen in the choice of illustrations, which in addition to photos ofclassic ethnographic subjects (e.g., "Awoman, behaving as a child, stuffs rawsago down her throat," 109) includesviews of Gewertz' daughter, cartoons,a sketch made by a Chambri child, anda cover that brings to mind the moodof Gauguin's South Seas paintings.
The book begins in an appealingway by posing a question raised by afieldwork incident: Gewertz' irritatedreaction when her male informantYorondu announces his intention toshow previously unrevealed ritualobjects to Errington alone, thus treating her as a member of the category"female" rather than as a professionalanthropologist. In effect, the book isan attempt to understand the differingcultural assumptions that collided inthis incident. We learn in the final