Social anthropology

Arne Perminow, Ingjerd Hoem and Astrid Anderson

In terms of social organisation, although the region shows considerable variation, a common theme is the general significance of narratives of origin in shaping social differentiation. The expansion of horticultural, navigator societies from near to remote Oceania, show a pattern of birth-order rank, where a general mechanism has been identified as furthering the expansion, whereby elder brothers became founders and rulers, and younger brothers moved on to establish themselves on new islands. In this manner, the existence of complex networks of inter-island connections was established. In short, a practice has emerged that allow groups of people, locally and trans-locally, to actively claim multiple origins.

We hypothesise that these pre-historical patterns of movement, settlement and social differentiation, as they are represented in and represent local identity practices, also are possible to identify at work in the contemporary Pacific. The social anthropological studies in this project will examine local and trans-national representations of the past in the present. Also, they will examine aspects of continuity and discontinuity in the relationship to place and movement as part of everyday practices.