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J. Bonnemaison (1981)
Voyage autour du territoire, 10
Pacific islanders, once viewed from a "fatal-impact" perspective, are now in- creasingly portrayed as actors, as being, and always having been, actively engaged in the processes of political, economic, and social change.' This conceptual shift, explicit in Pacific historiography, reflects a growing focus on human agency in wider social theory.2 Pacific geographers have intuitively foregrounded local actions and initiatives as a consequence of both a research involvement in small-scale societies and evidence of political activism during decolonization. However, the portrayal of islanders over recent decades has included varying perspectives of vulnerability, adaptability, and resistance.3 It is with islander resistance that this paper is concerned, and principally with resistance to dispossession of land and lagoon resources in the Tuamotu Archipelago. The passionate relationship between peoples and their natural environ- ment has been described in numerous studies.4 This attachment is powerful for indigenous peoples throughout the world and for Pacific islanders in particular. In Tana, Vanuatu, for example, people are tied to their island with a detailed knowledge of place and imbued with a mythical view of their land.5 Territorial rights are validated by reference to ancestors who are held to still inhabit the area. Rights are obtained only through
Ocean Yearbook Online – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 1996
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