Covert control? Indigenous agency in Edward Winslow Gifford's Fijian archaeological expedition of 1947
Date
2019-01-11
Authors
Spriggs, Matthew
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Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis Group
Abstract
The story of University of California archaeologist Edward Winslow Gifford’s 1947 Fijian fieldwork has been told up to now as a classic piece of colonial fieldwork with aims and direction dictated by the foreign specialist. But examination of the extensive Gifford archive held in the University of California Berkeley’s Bancroft Library and its Hearst Museum and a bit of ‘reading against the grain’ reveal a quite different story. Indigenous agency played a major, probably even decisive, role in how the expedition
unfolded. The value of archival research into the history of archaeology, and particularly its contribution to the teaching of archaeological practice today, is significant in revealing ‘hidden histories’ that make a difference.
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Keywords
Pacific archaeology, Fiji, Indigenous agency, Edward Gifford, Rabici Logavatu, Kingsley Roth, Ratu Sukuna
Citation
Matthew Spriggs (2019) Covert Control? Indigenous Agency in Edward Winslow Gifford’s Fijian Archaeological Expedition of 1947, The Journal of Pacific History, 54:3, 397-416, DOI: 10.1080/00223344.2018.1556089
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Journal of Pacific History
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Journal article
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Restricted until
2037-12-31
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