Description: This collection of reading shares the anthropological research interest and cultural variation of Pacific people, including significant and relevant articles focused on culture history, technology and economics, social life, politics and social control, religion, and culture change.
Cultures of the Pacific is a necessary, beneficial, and informative read for undergraduate and graduate courses focused on the anthropology of Pacific people and cultures. Many of the selections included in this book, including four previously unpublished papers, have not been readily available to readers. The editors' introductions to each section indicate the place of the individual contributions in Pacific studies in particular and in anthropology in general.Brief description: Thomas G. Harding is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.