Cluny Macpherson

La'avasa Macpherson

Examining a variety of intriguing issues, this sociological study analyzes the impact global culture has had on the flora and fauna, people, economies, languages, and cultures of the Pacific for many centuries. The survey draws on findings from a 40-year research partnership, illustrating the effects of globalization from the perspective of a typical Samoan village and documenting the country's shift from baskets to buckets, from religious authority to a questioning democracy, and from in-kind work to a cash economy. Delving into questions such as When do Pacific emigrants stop sending money to their home village? Do villagers stop giving away fish when they get a refrigerator? and How do cell phones change villages? this argument contends that contemporary changes are presenting a more profound challenge to Samoan social institutions and society than at any other time in the past. Comprehensive and accessible, this guide is essential for those interested in the way global forces are shaping change in small Pacific nations.

Globalisation in Contemporary Samoa

The Warm Winds of Change

Paul Spoonley

David G. Pearson

"Provides chapters on the post-war migration to New Zealand of Tagata Pasefika (Pacific Islanders) ... East Asians and South Africans and their incorporation (or lack of it) into New Zealand society ... debates about how we understand our history and ourselves as cultural and ethnic groups ... in the case of Maori, Tagata Pasefika and Pakeha, gender and ethnicity, Treaty policies, ... media, justice and education of bicultural and multicultural policies"--Back cover.

Racism and Ethnic Relations in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Nga Patai

What leads a Samoan villager to buy a Chinese polypropylene mat rather than making a pandanus mat? When do Pacific emigrants stop sending back money to their home village? Do villagers stop giving away fish when they have a refrigerator to store it in? In The Warm Winds of Change, Cluny and La'avasa Macpherson look at ordinary lives in a Pacific village in order to provide an accessible introduction to the ways in which Pacific societies are being transformed by the forces of globalisation. Global culture has had a powerful impact on the flora and fauna, the people, languages and cultures of the Pacific for many centuries. But these earlier changes were largely controlled and managed by Pacific societies as new people, ideas, and things were incorporated into traditional chiefly culture. The Macphersons suggest that recent changes are delivering a more profound challenge to tradition. Society is shifting from baskets to buckets, from chiefly and religious authority to a questioning democracy, from in-kind work to a cash economy. Every day in Western news, media report on the key forces of globalisation - free flows of capital, people and ideas, the impact of big cultures and economics on small nations, the falling costs of distance. Here the Macphersons make those forces tangible by showing us how globalisation is transforming daily life in an ordinary Pacific village.

Cluny Macpherson

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