Citation

Josephides L. Contemp. Pac. 2001; 13(2): 566-568.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, University of Hawaii Press)

DOI

10.1353/cp.2001.0056

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This is a treasure trove of a volume, with current, state-of-the-art papers by anthropologists, historians, psychologists, criminologists, political scientists, lawyers, journalists, and local activists, all writing about their own research, work, and experience. It is organized in five sections (Representations, The Gender of Violence, Non-government Organizations and Domestic Violence, Violence and Identity, Violence and the State), with an introduction by Dinnen and an epilogue by Margaret Jolly. The historical accounts blend colonial and missionary activity, exposing the different representations of violence according to whether it was indigenous, colonial, or missionary. While Reverend Brown's punitive raid was self-avowedly undertaken to teach the Tolai that "roast missionary is an expensive dish," this violence was still seen as preparing the ground for the gospel (Christine Weir). More insidious was a newspaper's anti-independence campaign, conducted through depictions of harmony between people and nature by picturing French settlers in intimate camaraderie with mixed-race friends and relatives in a domesticated New Caledonian countryside (Alaine Chanter).