This paper on the anthropology of the Pacific focuses on people of Melanesia, and especially Papua New Guinea. Many innovations in anthropological theory and method have come out of research in Melanesia, and the area continues to provide highly productive challenges for anthropological description and understanding. Through seminars and lectures, we examine and engage critically with work on the following themes: kinship and social structure, exchange systems, equality and hierarchy, gender and the body, myth and ritual, cultural variation in ideas of the knowability of others’ minds, radical cultural change, linguistic diversity and language change, colonialism, Christianity, national consciousness, state-society relations, and primitivist tourism and television.
Further information including a list of lecture courses and background reading can be found in the Paper Guide in the Paper Resources section to the right of this page.