This study compares a collection of decontextualized objects in McGill's Redpath Museum with contemporary historical accounts to see what congruencies can be established between them. It focuses on 125 artifacts gathered in the New Hebrides by a Nova Scotian missionary living on Erromanga between 1872 and 1913. These objects have never been studied before. Collected ethnographic objects are usually studied as they are found in the museum or as they might have been in the field--the movement from one place to the other is not considered significant. Critical consideration of the collecting process imparts information about the manufacture and use of objects, offers insights regarding the relation between local and introduced material culture, and reveals the historically contingent, intercultural relations that made collecting possible. It also exposes the foreign, local, cultural, and individual influences at work when certain items were selected, while others were left behind.

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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-171). / vi, 171 leaves, bound ill. (some col.) 29 cm

Bibliography: leaves 339-372. / 372 leaves : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Maintains, and substantiates in the ethnographic context, that cultural identity is both a conscious and symbolic construction. The ethnography is situated in the Shepherd (Central) Region of the Republic of Vanuatu, a Y-shaped archipelago in the south west Pacific Ocean. Fieldwork was conducted between July 1995 and February 1997 on two islands - Mataso and Efate. Mataso and Matah Keru communities have gradually become distinct, each possessing particular structural organizations, customs (kastom) and histories. Yet, the two groups remain united. Credence in historical ancestors, indigenous mythologies and territorial places continually cement an ethnic commitment between urban and rural dwellers, a bond that is forever reinforced through the movement of persons between places. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Anthropology, 2000?

This is a study of coming to know what it is to be Paamese. The work seeks to present an anthropological understanding of ontological concerns that constitute a Paamese perception of subjectivities. I take my lead from Paamese perceptions that the internal capacities of subjects or “things” (e.g. persons, villages, islands, and movement itself) are revealed through relations with others. This correlates with anthropology’s methodology of testing its analytical strategies through the ethnographic practices of others in order to reach more accurate representations. Paamese, as is common elsewhere in Vanuatu and Melanesia, have an extremely fluid attitude towards sociality and easily accommodate urban dwelling without leaving Paama behind. I suggest that a nuanced multi-positioned approach in which several aspects of Paamese sociality are considered from a point of limitation employed by Paamese to focus an event, such as a marriage exchange, will present a better understanding of how these subjectivities, that is Paamese people and Paama Island, adhere such that they do not part company wherever they go. Paamese suggest that each event should be considered as if following a single branch in the canopy of a tree – a scalable perception that offers the promise that a multi-faceted approach will reveal a replicable form. I take this approach to specificity seriously and employ a looping aesthetic, measi, adapted from Paamese sand-drawing in order to consider the shifting concerns expressed by Paamese perceptions of out (place), āmal (agnatic clans), sise (road), vatte (origin), ara (blood) and asi (bone). I suggest that these, parts, can be considered together as a holography for how to come to know what it is to be Paamese.