Paradise for sale. The sweet illusions of economic growth in Vanuatu

Despite several years of economic growth, social tensions appear in Vanuatu’s capital, Port-Vila, where a growing number of inhabitants see their daily life conditions becoming harder. A vast amount of land has been leased to expatriate investors, and the economic development is mainly supported and controlled by expatriates and/or non indigenous Ni-Vanuatu. The country’s rural population, which still mostly lives from subsistence agriculture, begins to see its stable and steady traditional lifestyle threatened by the effects of development. It is then necessary to remind that the calcutation of Gross Domestic Product (gdp) is not accurate to measure the quality and standards of life in Vanuatu, who has been elected “World’s happiest nation” by a ngo using other, challenging criteria.En dépit d’une croissance économique et d’une relative stabilité politique depuis plusieurs années, des tensions sociales apparaissent à Port-Vila, capitale du Vanuatu, où un nombre de plus en plus grand d’habitants a vu ses conditions de vie se durcir. Un grande quantité de terres ont été cédées à des investisseurs expatriés, et le développement économique est largement contrôlé par des étrangers et/ou des Ni-Vanuatu non autochtones. La population rurale, qui vit pratiquement toujours d’une agriculture d’autosubsistance, voit également son mode de vie stable et durable menacé par les effets du développement. Il est donc nécessaire de rappeler que les critères de calcul du pib ne sont pas très appropriés pour évaluer la qualité de vie au Vanuatu, qui a par ailleurs été élu “pays le plus heureux du monde” par une ong qui utilise d’autres critères, assez provocateurs

Città invisibili? Riflessioni sulla questione urbana in Oceania

Why have cities stayed for so long an invisible object for the anthropology of Oceania? What is it to be an urban Pacific islander? What are the fields of interest of the anthropologists working in urban Oceania? Drawing on a review of urban research lead during the last decades in the Pacific archipelagos, this article aims at unfolding these different questions. We will evoke how anthropologists’ attraction for the authentic, the rural world and small indigenous communities have for long prevented any close look at the contemporary urban world. Urban cities are recent and have been created by colonisation; they are made of various populations of migrants whose trajectories have been molded by colonisation and globalization. The study of these recent cities associate various issues such as creolization, informal economy, periurbanisation, circular migration, relations between expatriates and indigenous people, and contemporary uses of tradition or “custom”. Eventually, the paper concludes with the will to claim the right for the anthropology of urban Oceania to find its place among the discipline, among the vast collection of studies evoking the rural and so-called traditional worlds of the region.Per quale ragione la città è rimasta per così lungo tempo un oggetto invisibile per l’antropologia oceaniana? Cosa significa essere un cittadino oceaniano? Quali sono i campi d’interesse e d’indagine degli antropologi del mondo urbano oceaniano? A partire da un bilancio di ricerche svolte in questi ultimi decenni nei diversi arcipelaghi del Pacifico, questo articolo si impegna ad aprire queste diverse problematiche. Vedremo come l’interesse degli antropologi per l’autentico, per il mondo rurale e le piccole comunità autoctone, ha inibito durevolmente l’osservazione del mondo recente, un mondo introdotto dalla colonizzazione e costituito da raggruppamenti eterocliti di immigrati venuti da orizzonti tracciati prima dalla storia coloniale poi dalla mondializzazione. L’articolo dimostra che i mondi urbani oceaniani offrono un insieme eclettico di situazioni. Esse articolano la tematica della creolizzazione, dell’economia informale, della periurbanizzazione e delle migrazioni circolari, dei rapporti tra espatriati e autoctoni, e delle usanze contemporanee del “costume”. Infine prenderemo atto, per concludere, del diritto dei mondi urbani dell’Oceania ad avere una buona posizione sulla scena dell’antropologia legittima, accanto agli studi che riguardano i mondi rurali detti tradizionali

Introduction. The Pacific on Screens: From Representation to Reappropriation

The Pacific region occupies a unique place in the history of world cinema, covering a wide range of genres, including Hollywood blockbusters, ethnographic documentaries, and contemporary local productions. Despite this, studies on the subject are rare, especially in French-language research. Yet, from the perforated reels of the first cameras to modern-day digital equipment, the Pacific on film raises a number of questions, be it as a vehicle for colonial propaganda, font of exoticism, scient..

Nationalism and Interdependence: The Political Thought of Jean-Marie Tjibaou

The publication of the writings and speeches of Jean-Marie Tjibaou (1936–1989) allows us to sketch the main directions of his political thought, which aimed to reintegrate New Caledonia into the cultural, political, and economic Pacific framework. The apparent originality of the Kanak example might be illuminated by a comparative approach to the pan-Pacific ideology known as the Pacific Way. But when nationalisms lead to the emergence of new states, new difficulties arise — economic interdependence, and the necessary invention of new models, both regional and national, local and universal

Swain (Tony) Trompe (Gary). The Religions of Oceania

Wittersheim Eric. Swain (Tony) Trompe (Gary). The Religions of Oceania. In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions, n°98, 1997. p. 135

Norbert Elias & Eric Dunning, Sport et civilisation. La violence maîtrisée

Wittersheim Eric. Norbert Elias & Eric Dunning, Sport et civilisation. La violence maîtrisée. In: Genèses, 23, 1996. Histoire politique, histoire du politique II, sous la direction de Alban Bensa et Éric Wittersheim. pp. 164-165

Albert Piette, Ethnographie de l'action. L'observation des détails

Wittersheim Eric. Albert Piette, Ethnographie de l'action. L'observation des détails. In: Genèses, 27, 1997. Outils du droit, sous la direction de Florence Weber . pp. 165-166

Luchas indígenas, trayectorias poscoloniales -Américas y Pacífico-

Este texto es único, puesto que se centra en las trayectorias sociales de líderes indígenas de diferentes regiones del mundo, poniendo los actores sociales en el centro del análisis. Igualmente, el libro privilegia, de una manera novedosa, el método etnográfico y da cuenta, sin embargo, de procesos estructurales (la lógica jurídica, política y económica). Así, permite hacer una crítica, a través de la presentación de materiales empíricos muy ricos, de las aproximaciones clásicas en antropología de la problemática indígena. También da cuenta de investigaciones novedosas sobre objetos y terrenos de invitación interdisciplinarios, que permite la convergencia de varias disciplinas (antropología, historia, derecho, relaciones internacionales, sociología). Este texto logra reunir autores de muchas regiones del mundo alrededor de una misma problemática, y logra una aproximación teórica y metodológica al tema. Está dirigido a la comunidad académica nacional e internacional: internacionalistas, antropólogos sociales, politólogos sociales, y, en general, estudiosos de las cuestiones indígenas y raciales

Negro es negro : La “Africanización” del Pacífico en cuestión

This article surveys a debate that has deeply stirred the field of Pacific studies and is rooted in a number of stereotypes that remain prevalent in the academic world of the region. In contrast to its long-established image as a peaceful haven, the political horizon of the South Pacific darkened suddenly in the early 2000’s with the simultaneous appearance of institutional disorder and coups in several island countries, including Fiji and Papua New Guinea. The emergence of political violence and the deterioration of social conditions led political scientists to import theories, such as the "weak state", and to identify the signs of a so-called "Africanization" of the South Pacific. Theses analyses were also purportedly supported by the anthropologists, which have extensively described the diversity and irreducibility of Pacific societies. Detailed anthropological research and fieldwork demonstrate that these situations of conflict are often highly localized and historically rooted, therefore invalidating any attempt of generalization across the continent. This debate on “the Africanization of the Pacific”, with its strong colonial overtones, also echoes debates that have emerged in relation to indigeneity and the viability of post-colonial states in other continents