At Home and in the Field: Ethnographic Encounters in Asia and the Pacific Islands

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2015

At Home and in the Field

Ethnographic Encounters in Asia and the Pacific Islands

Edited by: Suzanne S. Finney , Mary Mostafanezhad , Guido Carlo Pigliasco and Forrest Wade Young

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824855543

Overview
Contents

About this book

Crossing disciplinary boundaries, At Home and in the Field is an anthology of twenty-first century ethnographic research and writing about the global worlds of home and disjuncture in Asia and the Pacific Islands. These stories reveal novel insights into the serendipitous nature of fieldwork. Unique in its inclusion of "homework"—ethnography that directly engages with issues and identities in which the ethnographer finds political solidarity and belonging in fields at home—the anthology contributes to growing trends that complicate the distinction between "insiders" and "outsiders." The obligations that fieldwork engenders among researchers and local communities are exemplified by contributors who are often socially engaged with the peoples and places they work. In its focus on Asia and the Pacific Islands, the collection offers ethnographic updates on topics that range from ritual money burning in China to the militarization of Hawai'i to the social role of text messages in identifying marriage partners in Vanuatu to the cultural power of robots in Japan. Thought provoking, sometimes humorous, these cultural encounters will resonate with readers and provide valuable talking points for exploring the human diversity that makes the study of ourselves and each other simultaneously rewarding and challenging.

Author / Editor information

Finney Suzanne S. :

Suzanne S. Finney is president of the Maritime Archaeology and History of the Hawaiian Islands Foundation.Mostafanezhad Mary :

Mary Mostafanezhad is a Professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.Pigliasco Guido Carlo :

Guido Carlo Pigliasco is adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i and a foreign-law consultant to the State of Hawai‘i.

Reviews

Lamont Lindstrom, University of Tulsa:
The collection would serve to introduce students to the serendipity, ethics, and humanity of field research. Students receiving the ethnographers’ tweets should come better to understand the practice of field research and how field experience is useful for eventual comparison, generalization, and theory building. The approach of 'fieldwork' as a form of 'homework'—this feature is usefully signposted in the volume’s preface, introduction, and epilogue. Their stories illustrate the predicament of studying one’s own community, and this supplements the challenges that all ethnographers typically face—making a fool of oneself, culture shock, unintentional rudeness, misunderstandings, and so on.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Mulling the Intimacies of Dislocation Christine R. Yano Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Suzanne S. Finney, Mary Mostafanezhad, Guido Carlo Pigliasco and Forrest Wade Young Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1.Real Encounters:Predicaments of Ethnographic Fieldwork
Introduction Suzanne S. Finney Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	5
Tempting the Nāga Local Knowledge and Mysteries of the Mekong Carl J. Hefner Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
An Anthropologist Behaving Badly The Case of the Missing Watch on Waya Island, Fiji Lisa Humphrey Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
Attacked in the Field Encountering a Street Gang While Studying Peace in Java Jaida Kim Samudra Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
A Question of Permission in Pohnpei Suzanne S. Finney Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
Grandmothers, Sharks, and Other Dangerous Things Persistent Crises in Mangareva, French Polynesia Alexander Mawyer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Part 2. Meaningful Encounters:Learning, Representing, Engaging the Field
Introduction Forrest Wade Young Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
Fieldwork as Transformative Experience Learning to See Positive Māori Urban Identities Serge A. Marek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Fieldwork on Two Wheels in Hanoi, Vietnam, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Enjoy the Ride Margaret Barnhill Bodemer Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
The Cultural Power of Robots in Japan Hirofumi Katsuno Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
Encountering Maoist Propaganda in Pastoral Inner Mongolia Hong Jiang Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
When the Field is Your Home Doing Advocacy Work and Academic Work in Hawai‘i Jonathan Y. Okamura Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Part 3.Language Encounters:Voices, Discourse, Digital Practice
Introduction Forrest Wade Young Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Systemic Culture Shock Meeting Fu Lai Ming on the Tibetan Plateau Naomi C. F. Yamada Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Shóón Pakin, Sóóu Tittilap Researching Narrative Discourse in Micronesia Emerson Lopez Odango Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
Talking with the Moai on Easter Island Placing Rapa Nui Language Forrest Wade Young Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
Blogging in Papua New Guinea Steven Edmund Winduo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
Part 4. Identity Encounters:Gender, Ethnicity, Nationality
Introduction Mary Mostafanezhad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Prostitutes, Menstrual Blood, Minor-Wives, and Feeding the Ducks Learning about Gender in Thailand LeeRay M. Costa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
Manning Up On Being a Chamorro Researcher with a Home Court (Dis)Advantage on Guam James Perez Viernes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	118
Contested Belonging of North Korean Refugees in South Korea Hyeon Ju Lee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
“You Filipino, Ya?” Roderick N. Labrador Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
Part 5. Close Encounters:Marriage, Kinship, Social Networks
Introduction Guido Carlo Pigliasco Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Sorry, Wrong Number! Locating Marriage Partners through Wrong Numbers and Text Messages in Vanuatu Ashley Vaughan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	143
The Invisible Firewalker Negotiating Sentiment and Inalienable Possessions on a Fijian Island Guido Carlo Pigliasco Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
“You Can Do It, Japan!” Social Networks and Natural Disasters Pamela L. Runestad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Head Candy/Gut Connection How Reenacting a Historic Event Changes the Present in Hawai‘i Lynette Hi‘ilani Cruz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
Part 6. Economic Encounters:Class, Development, Inequality
Introduction Mary Mostafanezhad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Tales of the Talā (Dollar) Notes on Cars, Consumption, and Class in American Sāmoa Fa‘anofo Lisaclaire Uperesa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Working-Class Hospitality and Etiquette in a Bowl of Rāmen Noodles in Tokyo, Japan Satomi Fukutomi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	184
Entering Moloka‘I Hawaiian Style Mary Tuti Baker Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	190
Part 7.Green Encounters:Environment, Sustainability, Restoration
Introduction Mary Mostafanezhad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
From Nuclear Exodus to Cultural Reawakening A Navigator’s Journey in the Marshall Islands Joseph H. Genz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
“They Came For Nature” A Political Ecology of Volunteer Tourism Development in Northern Thailand Mary Mostafanezhad Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
The Forest of Contradictions Coffee Versus Conservation at Indonesia’s Kerinci Seblat National Park Keith Andrew Bettinger Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
He‘Eia Kūpuna Mapping Workshops Unearthing the Past, Inspiring the Future in Hawai‘i Hokulani K. Aikau, Nahaku Kalei and Bradley Wong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
Part 8. Political Encounters:Power, Conflict, Resistance
Introduction Forrest Wade Young Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Narratives of the Vulval Curse in Bontok and Kalinga, Philippines Melisa Casumbal-Salazar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
Digitalizing the Wantok System in West Papua James Stiefvater Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	240
Embattled Stories of Occupied Hawai‘i Ty P. Kāwika Tengan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
Ta‘Aroa is Great, Good and Mā‘Ohi Nationalism and Spiritual Identity in Contemporary Tahiti Lorenz Gonschor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
Part 9. Deep Encounters:Worldview, Religion, Spiritual Practices
Introduction Guido Carlo Pigliasco Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Tiptoeing among the Knowledge of the Bodies and the Bodies of Knowledge in Tonga Gaia Cottino Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Being and Time in Nagasaki, Japan Toru Yamada Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	272
Losing My Mind and Loving Mosquitoes, Crickets, and Other Jungle Inhabitants Reflections on Field Research and Its Frustrations at a Buddhist Meditation Retreat in Southern Thailand Geoff Ashton Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	278
“Papa! What’s Money?” An Enduring Question Finds Answers in Burning It for the Spirits of the Dead in China C. Fred Blake Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Epilogue Fieldwork Today Geoffrey White Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	294
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
List of Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	317
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	323

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 352
Illustrations
- Other: 9 black & white illustrations

eBook

Published: April 30, 2015
ISBN: 9780824855543