Nicholas Thomas

"Over the last twenty years museums have proliferated, attracting new audiences and assuming new prominence in public life. Nicholas Thomas argues that what is special about museums are their collections, which are not just rich resources for reflection, but creative technologies that enable people to make new things in the present. Reflecting on art, science, history, and world cultures museums around the world, Thomas shows that in times marked by insecurity and increasing conflict, museums can help to sustain and enrich civil society. They stimulate a curiosity that is vital to understanding and negotiating the cosmopolitan but dangerous world we all now inhabit."--Back cover.

What Museums are Good For in the 21st Century

The Return of Curiosity

Christopher Pinney

The anthropology of art is currently at a crossroads. Although well versed in the meaning of art in small-scale tribal societies, anthropologists are still wrestling with the question of how to interpret art in a complex, post-colonial environment. Alfred Gell recently confronted this problem in his posthumous book Art and Agency. The central thesis of his study was that art objects could be seen, not as bearers of meaning or aesthetic value, but as forms mediating social action. At a stroke, Gell provocatively dismissed many longstanding but tired questions of definition and issues of aesthetic value. His book proposed a novel perspective on the roles of art in political practice and made fresh links between analyses of style, tradition and society. Offering a new overview of the anthropology of art, this book begins where Gell left off. Presenting wide-ranging critiques of the limits of aesthetic interpretation, the workings of objects in practice, the relations between meaning and efficacy and the politics of postcolonial art, its distinguished contributors both elaborate on and dissent from the controversies of Gell's important text. Subjects covered include music and the internet as well as ethnographic traditions and contemporary indigenous art. Geographically its case studies range from India to Oceania to North America and Europe.

Art and the Technologies of Enchantment

Beyond Aesthetics

An in-depth chronicle of Captain James Cook's three historic voyages recounts his expeditions charting the eastern Australian coast, exploring the northwest coast of North America, circumnavigating New Zealand, and discovering many Pacific islands, setting his accomplishments against the backdrop of the colonialism of his era.

The Extraordinary Sea Voyages of Captain James Cook

Cook

Traces the history and experiences of the Pacific Islanders during the age of empires, describing encounters between the Islanders and Europeans and discussing the region's culture and development.

The Pacific in the Age of Empire

Islanders

From an award-winning scholar, the extraordinary sixty-thousand-year history of how the Pacific islands were settled. Thousands of islands, inhabited by a multitude of different peoples, are scattered across the vastness of the Pacific. The first European explorers to visit Oceania, from the sixteenth century on, were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving so many miles from the nearest continents. Who were these people? Where did they come from? And how were they able to reach islands dispersed over such immense tracts of ocean? In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between Asia and the Americas. From the third millennium BC, the Philippines, Indonesia, Micronesia and Melanesia were settled by Austronesian peoples of the western Pacific littoral. Later movements of Polynesian peoples took them even further afield, as far as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, the Marquesas, Easter Island and – eventually – New Zealand, up to AD 1250. Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from linguistics, archaeology, and the re-enactment of voyages, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migrations, the sea-going technologies that enabled them, and the societies that they left in their wake.

The Settlement of the Pacific

Voyagers

Ton Otto

A collection of essays which focuses upon local perceptions of the state, efforts to ground nationhood in tradition, the character of national narratives and recent transformations of the Pacific nationalism. Case studies are included from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Samoa and the Cook Islands.

Narratives of Nation in the South Pacific

Anna Cole

Bronwen Douglas

An illustrated history of tattooing and cultural exchange in the Pacific from the late 18th century to the present.

Bodies, Art and Exchange in the Pacific and the West

Tattoo

The anthropology of art is currently at a crossroads. Although well versed in the meaning of art in small-scale tribal societies, anthropologists are still wrestling with the question of how to interpret art in a complex, post-colonial environment. Alfred Gell recently confronted this problem in his posthumous book Art and Agency. The central thesis of his study was that art objects could be seen, not as bearers of meaning or aesthetic value, but as forms mediating social action. At a stroke, Gell provocatively dismissed many longstanding but tired questions of definition and issues of aesthetic value. His book proposed a novel perspective on the roles of art in political practice and made fresh links between analyses of style, tradition and society. Offering a new overview of the anthropology of art, this book begins where Gell left off. Presenting wide-ranging critiques of the limits of aesthetic interpretation, the workings of objects in practice, the relations between meaning and efficacy and the politics of postcolonial art, its distinguished contributors both elaborate on and dissent from the controversies of Gells important text. Subjects covered include music and the internet as well as ethnographic traditions and contemporary indigenous art. Geographically its case studies range from India to Oceania to North America and Europe.

Cook's great voyages marked the end of an era in world history. As he sailed into Hawaii in January 1778 he made contact with the last of the human civilizations to grow up independently of the rest of the world. But equally for the Polynesians and Melanesians of the Pacific, Cook's arrival in their midst merely marked a further (if disastrous) twist in diverse histories already many centuries old. In this immensely enjoyable and absorbing book Cook's journeys are reimagined, attempting toleave behind (or master) our later preoccupations to let us see what Cook and his associates experienced and what the societies he encountered experienced - from the Beothuks of Newfoundland to the Tongans of the Friendly Islands.

The Voyages of Captain Cook

Discoveries

An award-winning scholar explores the sixty-thousand-year history of the Pacific islands in this dazzling, deeply researched account. One of the Best Books of 2021 — Wall Street Journal The islands of Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia stretch across a huge expanse of ocean and encompass a multitude of different peoples. Starting with Captain James Cook, the earliest European explorers to visit the Pacific were astounded and perplexed to find populations thriving thousands of miles from continents. Who were these people? From where did they come? And how were they able to reach islands dispersed over such vast tracts of ocean? In Voyagers, the distinguished anthropologist Nicholas Thomas charts the course of the seaborne migrations that populated the islands between Asia and the Americas from late prehistory onward. Drawing on the latest research, including insights gained from genetics, linguistics, and archaeology, Thomas provides a dazzling account of these long-distance migrations, the seagoing technologies that enabled them, and the societies they left in their wake.

Vanessa Smith

Maia Nuku

The mutiny on the Bounty was one of the most controversial events of eighteenth-century maritime history. This book publishes a full and absorbing narrative of the events by one of the participants, the boatswain's mate James Morrison, who tells the story of the mounting tensions over the course of the voyage out to Tahiti, the fascinating encounter with Polynesian culture there, and the shocking drama of the event itself. In the aftermath, Morrison was among those who tried to make a new life on Tahiti. In doing so, he gained a deeper understanding of Polynesian culture than any European who went on to write about the people of the island and their way of life before it was changed forever by Christianity and colonial contact. Morrison was not a professional scientist but a keen observer with a lively sympathy for Islanders. This is the most insightful and wide-ranging of early European accounts of Tahitian life. Mutiny and Aftermath is the first scholarly edition of this classic of Pacific history and anthropology. It is based directly on a close study of Morrison’s original manuscript, one of the treasures of the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia. The editors assess and explain Morrison’s observations of Islander culture and social relations, both on Tubuai in the Austral Islands and on Tahiti itself. The book fully identifies the Tahitian people and places that Morrison refers to and makes this remarkable text accessible for the first time to all those interested in an extraordinary chapter of early Pacific history.

James Morrison's Account of the Mutiny on the Bounty and the Island of Tahiti

Mutiny and Aftermath

James Vinson

Samantha Cook

One of five books which together form the "International Dictionary of Film and Filmmakers", this text provides a handy reference to all the films.

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers: Title index

Published in 1999, this book is designed to provide the reader with a detailed understanding of Hong Kong’s social and political development. It offers a contemporary, holistic understanding of Hong Kong, which will not only complement existing works but also provide the reader with a solid foundation for understanding future developments in the territory. The book is divided into three sections: Identity, Civil Society and Politics. The first two sections provide a discrete understanding of the issues involved. This analysis is then utilised to explain the particular path of political development Hong Kong experienced in the 1980s and 1990s. Due to the in-depth analysis provided this work will be of use either to academics or to members of the general public seeking to understand the development of Hong Kong.

Identity, Civil Society and Illiberal Democracy in Hong Kong

Democracy Denied

Richard Eves

Louis Becke

Vernon Lee Walker

A look at the particularities of colonial life in the South Pacific through the correspondence of two colonialists.

The South Seas Letters of Vernon Lee Walker & Louis Becke

Bad Colonists

Jonathan Lamb

This anthology places the works of such well-known figures as Captain James Cook and Robert Louis Stevenson alongside the writings of lesser-known explorers, missionaries, beachcombers, and literary travellers who roamed the South Seas from the late 17th through the late 19th centuries.

A South Seas Anthology, 1680-1900

Exploration and Exchange

Snail Down is an Early Bronze Age barrow cemetery on Salisbury Plain, located eight miles north-east of Stonehenge. Thirty-three mounds include examples of almost every type of Wessex barrow: bowl, bell, disc, saucer and pond type have all been excaveted there between 1953-7. The preferred burial rite at the site was cremation and disposal in burial pits. The land surrounding the cemetery is covered with the remains of ancient enclosures, ditches and other signs of habitation, suggesting that this area was in use for the last two millennia BC. This publication presents detailed analysis of an extraordinary variety of finds, backed up with illustrative material.

The Bronze Age Barrow Cemetery and Related Earthworks, in the Parishes of Collingbourne Ducis and Collingbourne Kingston : Excavations, 1953, 1955 and 1957

Snail Down Wiltshire

Deapartment of Prehistory and Anthropology Nicholas Thomas

A lucid theoretical reflection on the intersection of anthropology and history

History and Evolution in Anthropological Discourse

Out of Time

Marquesan society has long captured the interest of European observers, in part because of unfamiliar institutions such as polyandry. However, due to complex and destructive historical changes and the very scattered nature of early source-materials, the distinctive Marquesan developments of Polynesian society have been obscure and at odds with anthropologists' and historians' overall understanding of Pacific societies. Nicholas Thomas's book,based on a critical study of the fullest possible range of sources, is the first to provide a clear account of early Marquesan social relations and culture, and as such will become a key source forPacific scholars. However, Dr Thomas's discussion is not restricted to ethnohistoric documentation. His analysis of dynamic and highly fluid society and its encounters with early European visitors and traders encompasses wider debates about the nature of gender relations in Polynesian societies, small-scale hierarchical structures, cultural transformation, and longer-term change. In linking specific features of early Marquesan society, its contact with foreigners, andthe longer-term transformations of eastern Polynesian societies, Dr Thomas offers Pacific studies a distinctive new perspective.

Inequality and Political Transformation in Eastern Polynesia

Marquesan Societies

Tene Waitere (1854-1931) of the Ngati Tarawhai was the most innovative Maori wood carver of his time. His works reached global audiences, decades before the globalization of culture became a fashionable topic. This is the first book about Tene Waitere, with its elegant and powerful photographs documenting great houses and other carvings now dispersed in England, Germany, and various parts of New Zealand. Hinemihi, the carved house featured in one section of this book, sheltered survivors of the Mt. Tarawera volcanic eruption in 1886 before being removed to the park of an English country house. The magnificent His carved Ta Moko panel is one of New Zealand's icons. The travels of Tene Waitere's works tell us something about the interplay between empire and art. The book includes interviews and combined perspectives of his descendants - a leading contemporary carver, a master photographer, and a distinguished anthropologist and historian of Pacific art - making this book unique as a dialogue as well as a revelation of great works of Maori art.

Tene Waitere, Maori Carving, Colonial History

Rauru

Melissa Curley

Developments in East Asia have progressed rapidly in terms of regionalism since the 1997 crisis. The end of the Asian miracle called into question not only the capacity of regional states to meet the needs of their attendant peoples, but also challenged the viability of regional organizations, such as ASEAN, to adapt and respond to the changing circumstances. Advancing East Asian Regionalism looks at the ways in which ASEAN has expanded since the crisis, and evaluates the potential of East Asia to come together in a regional formation - one capable of representing the region as a whole - akin to the European Community. It draws upon the knowledge and perspectives of academics and policy makers actively engaged in the contradictory issues of regionalism. Coupling case study material on regionalism, institutions, and sectoral cooperation, with theoretical debates on regionalization, this book is an invaluable resource that pushes our understanding of East Asian regionalism forward.

Nicholas Thomas

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