Entangled objects : exchange, material culture, and colonialism in the Pacific / Nicholas Thomas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thomas, Nicholas, 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Material culture--Oceania.

Material culture.

Exchange--Oceania.

Exchange.

Acculturation--Oceania.

Acculturation.

Economic anthropology--Oceania.

Economic anthropology.

Oceania--Social life and customs.

Oceania.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 259 pages) : illustrations, maps

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : Harvard University Press, [1991]

Summary:

Entangled Objects threatens to dislodge the cornerstone of Western anthropology by rendering permanently problematic the idea of reciprocity. All traffic, and commerce, whether economic or intellectual, between Western anthropologists and the rest of the world, is predicated upon the possibility of establishing reciprocal relations between the West and the indigenous peoples it has colonized for centuries.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Objects, Exchange, Anthropology

2. The Permutations of Debt: Exchange Systems in the Pacific

3. The Indigenous Appropriation of European Things

4. The European Appropriation of Indigenous Things

5. The Discovery of the Gift: Exchange and Identity in the Contemporary Pacific

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 211-255) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780674044326

0674044320

OCLC:

1262308149