BOOK REVIEWS 2°3

1987 Constitution Review CommitteeReport, Solomon Mamaloni, chair.Honiara: Government Printer, 1988. 3volumes, 826 pp.

This massive document is the first sys-. tematic review of the Solomon Islands

constitution since it was enacted by theBritish parliament in 1978. Criticism ofthe politicians who formed a majorityof the review committee made them

From this we can see the anthropol­ogist looking at the people who arelooking at the anthropologist.Borofsky was acutely aware that whathe was doing was not of the people'sculture but about both theirs and hisown and the culture of anthropology aswell. He has told how Pukapukansconstruct their reality and at the sametime shown how he constructed hisreality concerning their reality. His lastchapter is a reflection of anthropologi­cal ways of knowing-fresh, open,accessible.

Borofsky's discussion of how thePukapukans value the Beaglehole eth­nography as an account of themselveswill in time be echoed in his own workfor he has presented Pukapukans tothemselves without condescension orconcession. His informants wouldsurely agree with his statement, "partof the reason for the differing accounts... stems from my being too curious.I asked too many questions." To hiscredit, no one could possibly thinkthat this ethnography is any the worsefor it.

JAMES RITCHIE

University 0/ Waikato

publish the evidence and backgroundpapers that led, they say, to their rec­ommendations. The three volumes area fascinating source of material onSolomon Islands political culture, andraise wider questions about participa­tion, popular authoritarianism, feder­alism, the rights of indigenous people,and the role of constitutions. Many ofthe documents and recommendationsbear the strong imprint of the ideas ofone of the country's most original poli­ticians, Solomon Mamaloni, whochaired the committee.

The first volume, Evidence, recordsthe 151 oral and written submissionsmade to the committee, mainly by indi­viduals, but also by groups of "chiefs,"professional associations, and govern­ment departments. Only one submis­sion was made by a political party (thePeople's Alliance Party)-perhaps anindicator of the irrelevance of parties inthe Solomons political system. The vol­ume also includes 14 "tour reports" ofthe visits made by committee membersto public meetings in most parts of thecountry. Some of the reports providean engaging diary of the trip: rows overcabin allocations, "very filling" break­fasts, meetings skipped because localpeople were in mourning, and a sub­mission so long that it covered sevenblackboards.

The results are summarized, ifsomewhat slanted, as the "people'sviews" in Volume 2, BackgroundPapers. It also includes an interimreport, seeking an extension of timeandIIloney; a summary of the provi­sions of the existing constitution, andthe questionnaire used during publicmeetings; a summary of the writtenand oral submissions; a paper on

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2°4 THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC. SPRING/FALL 1989

bicameralism; and a paper on "Funda­mental Defects of the Present Constitu­tion." The last recapitulates many ofthe "New Right" ideas that were part ofSolomon Mamaloni's platform asPrime Minister from 1981 to 1984: hos­tility to government regulation andjoint ventures with foreign capital, crit­icism of the "discriminatory" lendingpolicies of banks, and support for afederal system of government.

The "people's views," as summa­rized, were roughly as follows. The1978 constitution, enacted by a foreignparliament and embodying foreignideas, is no longer appropriate. Itsdemocratic ideals must be "consideredin the context of the long term interestsof indigenous Solomon Islanders," andthe new constitution must include ref­erence to the "wisdom and authority ofchiefs," cultural diversity, indigenousownership of land and natural re­sources, and the rights of communitiesand clans as well as individuals. Com­munity rights should be expressed invarious ways: a restoration of capitalpunishment; limits on the introductionof new religions; limits on the numberof political parties (no more thanthree); limits on freedom of movementbetween provinces (perhaps by internalpassports); and economic discrimina­tion in favor of indigenous people, asagainst naturalized citizens and resi­dent foreigners. Citizenship lawsshould be tougher (the tour reportscontain frequent references to Fiji as anegative example, to foreign business­me!1,ancl to the several thousand .Gilbertese settlers in the SolomonIslands). The country should become a"Republican Confederation of States,"with an indigenous elected president.

Chiefs should be represented in anupper house. Alienated land should bereturned to its traditional owners,whose rights should extend to mineralsfound under their land. The viewsabout provincial government are,appropriately, different for each prov­ince, most preferring a form of federal­ism, but some of the small islands pre­ferring rule by lower level "AreaCouncils" dealing directly with the cen­tral government in the capital,Honiara.

When it comes to Recommenda­tions, however, the committee is of twominds. Volume 3 contains two incon­sistent recommendations, with detailed"drafting guidelines" for each, but doesnot say which the committee favors.Recommendation One, for a "FederalRepublic," roughly follows the sum­mary of the tour reports and Mama­loni's economic critique of the constitu­tion set out in Volume 2. But it fudgesthe politically important question ofthe number of states (particularlywhether Choiseul Island should haveits own) and whether they shouldincorporate the smaller outlyingislands. Recommendation Two, for a"Unitary Republic," is more incremen­tal. The queen is replaced by an indige­nous, largely ceremonial president.There is a new senate, constitutedrather like Fiji's before the coups. Oth­erwise, the changes are minor, thoughthe constitution would be adopted byparliament sitting as a constituentassembly and would thus achieve for­ma.! autochthony..

Many of the issues canvassed by thecommittee, such as the position of thehead of state, the powers of provincialgovernments, and the place of tradi-

BOOK REVIEWS

tionalleaders, were also discussed byits predecessors in the 1970S (who alsoextensively toured the country). Butthere have been changes to the agenda.Almost nobody now seems to favor acontinued link with the British monar­chy (even the governor general's ownsubmission is noncommittal). Awoman is now on the committee, and asubmission from the National Councilof Women recommends constitutionalamendments against wife-beating andrape (while a tour report records thecountersuggestion of constitutionalamendments to keep women in theirtraditional place). And the process ofreview is now carried out without for­eign advisers and consultants. At leasttwo themes are of wider relevance tothe South Pacific. First, the continuingpressure to incorporate traditionalleaders ("chiefs") into the formal struc­tures of government and to qualify lib­eral constitutional provisions for indi­vidulll rights. Second, the fate ofconstitutional reviews: a similar com­mittee reported in Papua New Guineain 1983, for example, but only some ofits report has been debated by parlia­ment. Meanwhile, piecemeal constitu­tional amendments continue to be pro­posed by members of parliament, notnecessarily following the review's rec­ommendations.

PETER LARMOUR

University of Tasmania

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Return to-theHighValley.: ComingFull Circle, by Kenneth E. Read.Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1986. xxi + 269 pp, photo­graphs, index. us$18.95.

2°5

As I started Return to the High Valley,I harbored some doubts about thebook. Although the book was verygood reading, I wasn't quite sure that itwas "good" anthropology. I soon real­ized that Read, with his eloquent andaccessible writing style, offers an excel­lent and engaging description of thechanging world of the Gahuku Gamaof the Papua New Guinea Highlands.He has given us what is perhaps thebest anthropology available thesedays.

Read describes Return as a post­script to his earlier book, The HighValley (1965), but Return stands on itsown. I do not doubt, though, that thenew book will stimulate many to eitherread or reread the older work, and thusenrich their understanding of theGahuku. In Return, Read embarks ona voyage of self-discovery, returning toa world unseen for three decades. Intrying to understand the present, heconstantly bumps into the past.Indeed, just as he expanded his knowl­edge and understanding of the Gahukuthrough comparing the present withthe past while he was there, so too doeshe teach us by weaving the past andpresent together, presenting a changingtapestry of Gahuku culture.

Read charts the course of changefrom the immediate postwar period tothe beginning of the eighties. He con­tends that the people of Susuroka vil­lage, where he lived among theGahuku, far from mourning their lostpast and passively receiving imposed

-Westerninstitutions and culturaLpat- .terns, are rather pragmatic, taking themain chance offered by contact withthe outside world.

The Gahuku showed no regrets