Living Kinship in the Pacific [Paperback]

Unaisi Nabobo-Baba observed that for the various peoples of the Pacific, kinship is generally understood as knowledge that counts. It is with this observation that this volume begins, and it continues with a straightforward objective to provide case studies of Pacific kinship. In doing so, contributors share an understanding of kinship as a lived and living dimension of contemporary human lives, in an area where deep historical links provide for close and useful comparison. The ethnographic focus is on transformation and continuity over time in Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa with the addition of three instructive cases from Tokelau, Papua New Guinea, and Taiwan. The book ends with an account of how kinship is constituted in day-to-day ritual and ritualized behavior.

As an edited work, comprised of thoughtful, detailed, erudite research essays largely by anthropologists and linguists,Living Kinshipis a work for specialists. Many of the essays are highly technical, dealing with semantic features of kinship terminology, linguistic descriptors, generational differentiators, and spatial arrangements for ceremonial recognition of familial relations. At the same time, it does have an engagingly comprehensive thesis about the complexities of kinship ties and a number of important implications for broader Pacific scholarship. Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies

&a collection of high-quality research articles whose foci coincide to a remarkable degree&. [that] will be of lasting value to scholars of the region for years to comebecause knowledge of kinship will be knowledge that counts for a long time to come. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

Altogether, this collection goes a long way to meeting the volumes main objectives. The volume provides ethnographically-grounded overviews of the various ways kinship in these locales continues to serve as vital knowledge that counts. lƒC