Unfolding the moon : enacting women's kastom in Vanuatu / Lissant Bolton.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Bolton, Lissant, 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Women--Vanuatu--Social conditions.
• Textile fabrics--Vanuatu.
• Women in development--Vanuatu.
• Social conditions.
• Women in development.
• Textile fabrics.
• Women.
• Vanuatu--Social conditions.
• Vanuatu.

Physical Description:

xxxv, 232 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Honolulu : University of Hawaiʻi Press, [2003]

Summary:

In the first decades after independence in 1980, kastom-indigenous knowledge and practice-became a key market of ni-Vanuatu identity. However, it was almost entirely concerned with men. Then in 1991 the Vanuatu Cultural Centre initiated a project that focused on women's knowledge and skill in producing plaited pandanus textiles (mats) on the island of Ambae in north Vanuatu. This acknowledgment that "women have kastom too," widely welcomed by rural ni-Vanuatu, was an important step in establishing women's kastom. Lissant Bolton's account of this important but undocumented period considers the circumstances that led to these events and analyzes their effects on Ambae.

Contents:

• 1 History/Kastom 1
• 2 Kastom in the National Arena 26
• 3 Women without Kastom 51
• 4 Ples 67
• 5 Ambae: On Being a Person of the Place 78
• 6 Plaiting: "The Reason That Women Came into the World" 106
• 7 Dyeing: Designs, Power, Status 130
• 8 Making Textiles into Kastom 152
• Conclusion: Women with Kastom 183.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-222) and index.

ISBN:

0824825357

OCLC:

50006523