Person and place on Vanua Lava, Vanuatu

Abstract

This thesis draws upon existing bodies of work on 'place' and 'person ' in Melanesia, but brings them together in a new way. In the anthropological literature on Vanuatu, 'place' has been discussed in relation to colonial history, political economy and effects of the national economy rather than in relation to concepts of the person, as has been done by researchers working in Papua New Guinea and other regions of the Pacific. Personhood in Melanesia has been theorised using concepts of dividuality, individuality, partibility, and degrees of permeability and autonomy. This research suggests that Marilyn Strathern's argument, that for 'Melanesian persons' the distinction between 'individual' and 'society' is not relevant, can be extended to the concepts of 'person' and place. However, these concepts also need to be considered in their specific local history, taking account of V anua La vans' ongoing engagement with modernity, in particular with different forms of individualism. Engagement with Christian individualism, with a singular person's relationship with God, presupposes a moral 'core self that makes a person responsible for their own actions. Capitalist notions of possessive individualism and the simultaneous change from an oral, flexible mode of knowledge transmission to a more rigid written one have also affected Vanua Lavans' understanding. This thesis provides a snapshot of contemporary notions of personhood and a 'Melanesian modernity' in flux, where discontinuities and continuities compete, merge, co-exist, and are moderated by a cultural logic that might be changing itself. Show more