For people who live in small communities transformed by powerful outside forces, narrative accounts of culture contact and change create images of collective identity through the idiom of shared history. How may we understand the processes that make such accounts compelling for those who tell them? Why do some narratives acquire a kind of mythic status as they are told and retold in a variety of contexts and genres? Identity Through History attempts to explain how identity formation developed among the people of Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands who were victimized by raiding headhunters in the nineteenth century, and then embraced Christianity around the turn of the century. Making innovative use of work in psychological and historical anthropology, Geoffrey White shows how these significant events were crucial to the community's view of itself in shifting social and political circumstances.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Identity Through History is a brilliant ethnographic study of the construction of cultural identity in the Maringe subregion of Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands, where Geoffrey White carried out extensive fieldwork from 1974 to 1988....clearly written and carefully organized." Ethnohistory
"With this fascinating, beautifully written study of Santa Isabel society and history, Geoffrey White presents a sympathetic and penetrating analysis of the psycho-historical processes underlying neo-traditionalism....I found myself equally impressed by the immediacy of history in Santa Isabel villagers' consciousness as by White's gift as a storyteller in his own right.... White's important book deserves careful study by Pacific historians and anthropologists." John Barker, Pacific Affairs
"Meticulously researched and eloquently written...an elegant synthesis, a rigorously crafted history, and a superb ethnography." Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"A richly detailed, brilliantly conceived, and beautifully executed book, Identity through History is a quiet tour de force...The book is a pleasure to read and think with." American Anthropologist
"Geoffrey White's analysis of the manner in which the Cheke Holo of Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands use their historical narratives to construct their history is a thoroughly intelligent book...wonderfully written: one leaves it wishing all groups had ethnographers as lucid and as concerned with getting things right." Contemporary Pacific
"White's book is a rich and nuanced contribution to the literature on perceptions of the past and colonial change in the Pacific." Man
"White demonstrates with great force, no understanding of identity in the Solomon is possible without a detailed description of local histories, that is, of the processes whereby people produce a significant account of the events of conversion and colonisation." Pascal Boyer, King's College
"White's distinctive contribution is to connect his analysis of the social production of meaning with consideration of the person .... White's book is a sophisticated and pathbreaking addition to work in history and identity." Lin Poyer, University of Cincinnati
"...a valuable addition to the historical anthropology of the Pacific." Margaret Jolly, Pacific Studies
"Identity through History provides a solid description of the ways in which the local production of history on Santa Isabel is also a production of identity." Pascal Boyer, Pacific Studies
"With this fascinating, beautifully written study of Santa Isabel society and history, Geoffrey White presents a sympathetic and penetrating analysis of the psycho-historical processes underlying neo-traditionalism....I found myself equally impressed by the immediacy of history in Santa Isabel villagers' consciousness as by White's gift as a storyteller in his own right.... White's important book deserves careful study by Pacific historians and anthropologists." John Barker, Pacific Affairs
"Meticulously researched and eloquently written...an elegant synthesis, a rigorously crafted history, and a superb ethnography." Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"A richly detailed, brilliantly conceived, and beautifully executed book, Identity through History is a quiet tour de force...The book is a pleasure to read and think with." American Anthropologist
"Geoffrey White's analysis of the manner in which the Cheke Holo of Santa Isabel in the Solomon Islands use their historical narratives to construct their history is a thoroughly intelligent book...wonderfully written: one leaves it wishing all groups had ethnographers as lucid and as concerned with getting things right." Contemporary Pacific
"White's book is a rich and nuanced contribution to the literature on perceptions of the past and colonial change in the Pacific." Man
"White demonstrates with great force, no understanding of identity in the Solomon is possible without a detailed description of local histories, that is, of the processes whereby people produce a significant account of the events of conversion and colonisation." Pascal Boyer, King's College
"White's distinctive contribution is to connect his analysis of the social production of meaning with consideration of the person .... White's book is a sophisticated and pathbreaking addition to work in history and identity." Lin Poyer, University of Cincinnati
"...a valuable addition to the historical anthropology of the Pacific." Margaret Jolly, Pacific Studies
"Identity through History provides a solid description of the ways in which the local production of history on Santa Isabel is also a production of identity." Pascal Boyer, Pacific Studies
Book Description
This book is about the construction of cultural identity through narratives of shared history. It presents an anthropological study of processes of identity formation in a Solomon Islands society deeply affected by colonisation and Christianization.
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First Sentence:
When I first flew into capital town of Honiara I knew no one in Santa Isabel or, for that matter, in the entire country (at that time still a British colony). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
mission headman, first paramount chief, heathen violence, government headmen, heathen resistance, new paramount chief, government headman, shell armlets, paramount chiefship, chiefly leadership, conversion drama, district headman, headhunting raids, chief status, church chiefs, shell valuables, chief ceremony, chiefly status, localized identities, conversion histories, missionary contact, indigenous accounts, feast occasions, polarized images, ancestral shrines Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Santa Isabel, Cheke Holo, Melanesian Mission, Hugo Hebala, Henry Welchman, Matasi Iho, Maasina Rule, Dudley Tuti, Walter Gagai, Resident Commissioner, Solomon Islands, Lonsdale Gado, Monilaws Soga, New Georgia, High Commissioner, Nathaniel Hebala, Ben Hageria, Eric Gnhokro, Frederick Pado, Walter Notere, Willie Betu, Edmund Bako, Richard Fallowes, Church of Melanesia, Maringe Lagoon New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
When I first flew into capital town of Honiara I knew no one in Santa Isabel or, for that matter, in the entire country (at that time still a British colony). Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
mission headman, first paramount chief, heathen violence, government headmen, heathen resistance, new paramount chief, government headman, shell armlets, paramount chiefship, chiefly leadership, conversion drama, district headman, headhunting raids, chief status, church chiefs, shell valuables, chief ceremony, chiefly status, localized identities, conversion histories, missionary contact, indigenous accounts, feast occasions, polarized images, ancestral shrines Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Santa Isabel, Cheke Holo, Melanesian Mission, Hugo Hebala, Henry Welchman, Matasi Iho, Maasina Rule, Dudley Tuti, Walter Gagai, Resident Commissioner, Solomon Islands, Lonsdale Gado, Monilaws Soga, New Georgia, High Commissioner, Nathaniel Hebala, Ben Hageria, Eric Gnhokro, Frederick Pado, Walter Notere, Willie Betu, Edmund Bako, Richard Fallowes, Church of Melanesia, Maringe Lagoon New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 92
books:
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53
books
cite this book:
See all 53 books citing this book
- Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self and Emotion by Richard A. Shweder in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Cultural Psychology: Essays on Comparative Human Development by James W. Stigler in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- CLIO IN OCEANIA by Aletta Biersack in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology) by Pierre Bourdieu in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Cultural Models in Language and Thought by Dorothy Holland in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 92 books this book cites
- Colonialism's Culture by Nicholas Thomas on page 61, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions by William M. Reddy on page 115, and Back Matter
- New Directions in Psychological Anthropology (Publications of the Society for Psychological Anthropology) by Theodore Schwartz in Front Matter, and page 46
- Social Reproduction and History in Melanesia: Mortuary Ritual, Gift Exchange, and Custom in the Tanga Islands (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology) by Robert John Foster in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- European Impact and Pacific Influence: British and German Policy in the Pacific Islands and the Indigenous Response (Library of International Relations) by Herman Hiery on page 72, and page 73
See all 53 books citing this book
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