Pacific Research

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10289/18146

This collection consists of research produced at the University of Waikato which is by and/or about Pacific peoples and the Pacific region. Pacific research outputs (including PhD and Masters theses) from various fields and disciplines have been compiled into a single, easily accessible online space and as such, a broad range of topics, methodologies, and approaches are represented. Ultimately, the resources included in this collection demonstrate the vast forms of knowledge production across ‘our sea of islands’, Te Moana nui a Kiwa – the Pacific.

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Now showing 1 - 14 of 14

Oli Aenaguri’ai: An ethnography of socio-ecological relations and contemporary change in Baelelea, Solomon Islands.
(The University of Waikato, 2024) Faiau, James Kwaimani; Macdonald, Fraser; McCormack, Fiona
This thesis presents a story circumnavigating the social and ecological relations and contemporary changes in Baelelea inland villages on Malaita in the Solomon Islands. The undertaken anthropological and ethnographic study draws on both traditional and contemporary lifeworld of the Baelelea people living in Alafana. The thesis delves explicitly into the human lived experiences, subsistence ways, traditional knowledge, and beliefs that underscore their Indigenous ways of being and knowing. I positioned the research to investigate the socio-ecological dynamics and to gain grounded understanding of Baelelea cultural frameworks, including environmental epistemology, livelihood practices, religious orientation to the environment, oral traditions and spiritual beliefs, and conceptualisation of livelihood sustainability and natural resource management in the face of encroaching externalities of christianity, colonialism and capitalism or globalisation. The studied community of Alafana is small with disbursed population constituting of distinct clan and family groups, all are Baelelea speakers (but with historical and cultural link to other language groups in North Malaita). My ethnographic fieldwork and informants, by disaggregation included few of the remaining elders who converted from the traditional Baelelea religion of akalo (ancestors) to Christianity. Many others constituted first and secondgeneration born Christians. In Alafana and West Baelelea villages generally apart from conversion from traditional religion to Christianity, the biggest culture change is that people’s lifeworld and livelihood have shifted from subsistence systems of reliance on land and the forest to a mixed economy of increasing dependence on cash. A cultural rupture many described as moving from the cultural notion of ‘to make a living’ to that of ‘to make money’. In response and to counter the impending globalised system and social-culture, and ecological changes, informants conceptualised about returning to the basic life of sustainable social living and ecological productivity expressed in the metaphor oli aenaguri’ai –translated ‘return to the tree root’. The metaphor as used in the thesis depicts Baelelea's conception of connectedness and offers an anthropological perspective and deep conversations on the revitalisation of traditional knowledge and interconnectedness with the environment as represented in myths and oral traditions. A metaphorical tree root from Baelelea perspective represents the local ontological perspective, which I propose can contribute to better understanding the cultural landscape and multidisciplinary research approaches in interweaving indigenous knowledge with science in sustainable agriculture systems and natural resources management.
Sickness experience and language : aspects of Tongan and Western accounting
(The University of Waikato, 1981) Parsons, Claire D.F.; Bettison, David
In this study of Tongan healing practices, the author has chosen not simply to record participants’ roles or medicinal preparations but rather, the concern of this study is to understand the ‘doing’ of sickness as a social practice. Two main sociological techniques have been applied. Firstly, a hermeneutic - phenomenological approach was used to attain recordings of, and to analyze, the sickness theorizing of members of Tongan society. The ‘sickness talk’ of these members provides a record of some aspects of contemporary Tongan healing practices. The ‘sickness talk’ is also analyzed using Wittgenstein’s concept of ‘rule-usage’ in the ‘language game’ of sickness. This form of analysis indicated certain individual and public relevances which are grounded upon the Tongan way of life. Thus speakers’ accounts are analyzed in terms of what sickness talk ‘shows’ as well as what it ‘says’, disclosing cultural process instead of simply cultural product. Discussion on ‘diagnosis’ shows that in order to define the problematic situation of sickness, the phenomena are organized into a classification, that is, members have to ‘capture’, ‘fix’, ‘concretize’ the confronting transient phenomena and apply a sickness label as a ‘working definition’. Tongan sickness ‘types’ are shown to be not only different from Western ‘types’, but aspects of the process of constructing that difference are also shown to be implicit in the sickness talk. Diagnosis as a social process is not seen as the labelling of an ‘objective fact’, ‘a sickness’; nor is therapy understood as being some ‘thing’ that gets a person ‘better’. Tongan explanatory models, developed to explain sickness causation, differ essentially from Western explanatory models of sickness in that Tongans have developed a social model of prevention and cure while in the West, a biological model has been developed. Explanation is understood here not as the causal accounting of sickness but as the explanation of enigmatic consequences. The latter sections of the study on doing sickness as ‘kinship’ and as ‘healer’ not only add to the record on contemporary healing practices but also emphasize the Tongan social model of sickness. This study therefore, is not only a record, albeit a partial one, of contemporary Tongan healing practices, it also shows how these particular Tongans define certain sickness situations and devise a strategy to resolve that problematic situation. That is, it shows how committing certain experiences to language ‘is’ the ordering process. Rather than any magico-religious or scientific-biological model providing the basis of sickness practice in Tongan society, kinship is proposed as the underlying organizing principle. The comparative mode of analysis, in relation to Tongan and Western sickness theorizing, avoids presenting Western explanation as a model by which Tongan theorizing can be evaluated. Instead, in analyzing Tongan healing practices showing knowledge and relevance(s), substantive dimensions of Western theorizing and practice are disclosed. In selecting a limited number of members’ sickness accounts over a period of six and a half months in Tonga, I have not attempted to randomly sample the Tongan population in order to generalize my ‘findings’ to the whole of Tongan society. Instead my interest has been to give an interpretation of some aspects of Tongan sickness theorizing which may or may not be altered by similar and more extensive studies in the future. Contrary to what may be seen as being medical and anthropological expectations, Tongan traditional healing practices have not declined since Western contact, rather, they have developed from reportedly limited skills at that time, to an extensive network of healing practice today.
Impact of the 1962 New York Agreement on Indigenous West Papuans’ Political, Cultural and Territorial Rights: A historical and legal analysis of West Papuans’ rights to self-determination
(The University of Waikato, 2022) Tabuni, Kerinus Kerry; Morgan, Gay; Hemi, Keakaokawai Varner; Brennan, Anna Marie
West Papua was incorporated into Indonesia under the 1962 New York Agreement, which was signed between the Netherlands and Indonesia without involving indigenous West Papuans. The Agreement attempted to legitimise Indonesia’s claim of sovereignty over West Papua. It is the narrative around this Agreement that effectively dictates indigenous West Papuans' lives, including their subjugation to historical and ongoing human rights violations. This thesis closely examines the legal grounds of Indonesia’s claim, with a particular focus on whether the New York Agreement was legitimately and authentically implemented through the processes of the 1969 Act of Free Choice. Using primary and secondary sources, this thesis examines the legality of Indonesia’s occupation in West Papua. It begins with the circumvention of international laws that prevented indigenous West Papuans from gaining the benefit of international decolonisation regimes during international decolonisation periods, which ultimately led to the re-colonisation of West Papua. A careful historical examination confirms that the indigenous people of West Papua have lost their legitimate standing in international law. The thesis contends the intentions behind the creation of the New York Agreement were not genuine, but that the Agreement was a purposely imposed colonising law to recolonise the territory. By employing key legal arguments, this thesis contends that Indonesia's sovereignty claim over West Papua is legally invalid, historically unjustified and morally unacceptable. On reviewing both historical and ongoing violations of the human rights in the region, this thesis further argues that an internationally mandated process of self-determination should be considered as a legal remedy. The claims of indigenous West Papuans are historically supported, legally grounded and empirically demonstrated. This thesis establishes legal frameworks within the international law and institutions that can be utilised as practical pathways to West Papuan self-determination, with a particular focus on options within the United Nations systems.
He moana pukepuke e ekengia e te waka: Navigating a changing climate: A waka voyaging perspective
(The University of Waikato, 2022) McDonald, Rangihurihia Ann; Tuaupiki, Jackie Whetumarama; Maxwell, Kimberley
Human-induced climate change is threatening the ocean, natural ecosystems, and the global human population. Some groups, including Māori in Aotearoa, and Indigenous communities globally, will be disproportionately affected by the negative consequences of climate change. The current national and international governmental climate change responses underrepresent Indigenous peoples, issues, and knowledge. This thesis aims to contribute to the body of literature that documents Māori understandings, perspectives, and worldviews in relation to climate change. This work was guided by two inter-related questions. Firstly, what are the impacts of climate change on waka voyaging? Secondly, how can we draw on mātauranga (Māori knowledge) to respond to human-induced climate change? Specifically, the research addresses gaps in the scholarly literature that has yet to consider the unique contributions of waka voyaging practitioners to the climate change conversation. This work seeks to better understand the wide-ranging effects of human-induced climate change on Māori communities, knowledge, and culture, through an investigation of the impacts on waka voyaging. Furthermore, it considers how mātauranga whakatere waka (Māori understandings of Pacific voyaging knowledge) can contribute to climate change responses today and into the future. Guided by a Pūrākau and Kaupapa Māori research approach, I undertook a large-scale literature review and conducted seven in-depth semi-structured one-to-one interviews with Māori voyagers trained in traditional Pacific non-instrument ocean navigation. I analysed the data using a theoretical thematic analysis. Key findings suggest that waka voyaging is highly sensitive to changes in weather and climate. Historical climatic and environmental change, as well as human-induced ecological change, have both promoted and discouraged Pacific voyaging in the past. In Aotearoa, the decline of voyaging after Polynesian settlement led to the dormancy of a significant body of ancestral knowledge, which Māori are continuing to recover. Key impacts of human-induced climate change include the exacerbation of adverse weather for voyaging, limiting the annual window of opportunity to voyage and spatial ranges of voyages. Another key impact is the decline of marine species used in non-instrument navigation due to a range of human activities, including human-induced climate change. Ultimately, this research finds that human-induced climate change was caused by a widespread human disconnection and subsequent domination of the environment. Research participants, Indigenous peoples, scholars, and civil society, advocate for a reconnection and global paradigm shift. Findings of this study indicate that mātauranga Māori provides a valuable framework for such a paradigm shift guided by the principles of whanaungatanga (connectedness, relationship, kinship) and kaitiakitanga (reciprocal acts of guardianship). Amidst rapid human-induced climate change, waka voyaging communities in Aotearoa and the Pacific are among the many Indigenous peoples globally, taking climate action, educating youth, raising awareness, advocating for ocean health, protecting natural environments, and maintaining traditional knowledge and practices on waka hourua (double-hulled voyaging canoes) which are themselves sustainable methods of ocean transportation. This thesis highlights the need for more research centring mātauranga Māori, recommends genuine partnerships between the government and Māori, and the resourcing of Māori communities themselves to be self-determining around climate change.
The vulnerability to Online Scamming in contemporary Tongan Society = Ko e laveangofua ‘i he Ngaue Kākā ‘o e Naluope ‘i he Sosaieti Tonga lolotonga
(The University of Waikato, 2022) Laulaupea'alu, Siuta; Keegan, Te Taka Adrian Gregory; Nichols, David M.; Kumar, Vimal
This research explores the cybersecurity vulnerabilities of Tongan people to the rapid growth of Information, Communication, and Technology (ICT). A research conducted by Laulaupea‘alu and Keegan in 2016 revealed that Tongan people were vulnerable to the influence of rapid ICT development (Laulaupea‘alu and Keegan, 2016). The cybersecurity vulnerabilities that were identified among the Tongan people in 2016 assisted in informing this research, which is to investigate the current susceptibilities in contemporary Tongan society. The aim of this research is to investigate the reasons why Tongans are vulnerable to ICT development specifically Online Scamming (OS) and find possible solutions to mitigate these susceptibilities. This research is the first to explore and narrow the scope to focus specifically on OS in Tonga. This research also focuses on the technical features of cybersecurity and then extends it to cover the cultural practices that would make Tongan people more susceptible to online scamming. Laulaupea‘alu and Keegan (2019) directly conveyed these cybersecurity susceptibilities to the Government of Tonga (GoT) in 2018. This report confirmed that the actual position of cybersecurity in Tonga was that at least 73 percent of the organisations were vulnerable to cybercrime and cyberattacks. These organisations were victims of malicious software, spam, unauthorized access, social engineering, ransomware, data theft/data loss, stolen account, and other types of cybercrimes. This report also provided eleven (11) recommendations and suggested to the GoT to deploy these cybersecurity prevention and awareness features to assist in slowing down the issues of cyberattacks in Tonga. One of the modern ICT accomplishments in Tonga was the installation of fibre-optic cable in 2013. Again, Laulaupea'alu and Keegan (2018) warned Tongans about the issue of succeeding in the fast internet speed of fibre-optic cable. The “high speed internet brings opportunities such as jobs and business but it also brings malicious cyber actors who can target victims in the nation” (p. 255). Drawn by the awareness of ICT issues that may arise and could lead to a stage where is unable to control, this research is undertaken to identify the root cause of these vulnerabilities, further looking for cybersecurity issues that are currently incurred and discovering appropriate defensive tools to counter these vulnerabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted and became a major obstacle to this research. Due to border restrictions, there was no opportunity to travel to Tonga for data collection. To solve these issues, e-fanongonongo tokoto (e-ft) methodology was adopted to challenge the worldwide issues of COVID-19. The implementation of e-ft enabled effective communication from Hamilton to the survey participants in Tonga. E-mail, Facebook, Messenger, and Zoom are the communication methods deployed by e-ft to communicate and collect data from one hundred and thirty-nine (139) participants ranging from 16 to 70 years of age. Participants were selected from government ministries, organisations, boards, businesses and ICT grassroots computer users from all five main regions of Tonga (Tongatapu, Vava‘u, Ha‘apai, ‘Eua and Ongo Niua). Although the e-ft process encountered many obstacles in collecting data from the survey participants, it was able to generate responses and data that have been analysed in this research. The findings of this research reveal that Tonga is vulnerable to ICT development, and Tongan people are victims of cyberattacks due to the impact of rapid ICT development. These vulnerabilities relate to cybersecurity technical weaknesses, human behaviours, culture, and the personal beliefs of Tongans. This research also indicated that the people’s vulnerabilities were caused by five main elements: greed, romance/love/empathy, lack of cybersecurity training, lack of ICT knowledge, and unwillingness to report to authorities. These vulnerabilities have resulted in the loss of credential information and the loss of money to cybercriminals from the people of Tonga. Participants who took part in this research suggested powerful and long-term strategic plans to empower the prevention and awareness of Tongan people toward the impact of rapid ICT development.
A grammar of the Ahamb language (Vanuatu)
(The University of Waikato, 2020) Rangelov, Tihomir Rumenov; Barbour, Julie Renee; Jennings, William
A grammar of the Ahamb language (Vanuatu) offers a description of the endangered and previously undocumented Ahamb language spoken by around 950 people. This grammatical description is one of the main outcomes of the Ahamb Language Documentation Project, which involved over 8 months of data collection with Ahamb speakers in Vanuatu and resulted in an archived collection of over 50 hours of recorded speech and other materials. This description is based on a corpus of around 22 hours of annotated Ahamb speech and other texts. This thesis starts with an introduction to the Ahamb language, its speakers and the contexts in which it is spoken. The grammatical description that follows consists of a description of Ahamb’s phonology, morphology and syntax. Ahamb’s phonology is characterised by distinctive prenasalisation in its plosives and trills. There are four contrastive trills, including the typologically rare plain bilabial trill. The vowel inventory is also relatively large compared to other related languages, with eight contrastive vowels. The description of nominals and noun phrases in Ahamb spans four chapters. Nouns in Ahamb are classified as common, personal and local. They can also be classified as alienable and inalienable, which corresponds to a structural distinction in possessive constructions involving classifiers (general and alimentary) or direct suffixation respectively. Noun phrases consist of a nominal head and various modifiers that follow it in a relatively flexible order. Verbs in Ahamb can be transitive and intransitive. Intransitive verbs are further classified as active or stative. Detransitivisation is possible with the use of prefixation or reduplication. Verbs can take a number of prefixed tense/aspect/mood/polarity modifiers and commonly feature a subject index. Subject indexes come in three paradigms with forms for all person, number and clusivity distinctions. Neutral subject indexes are used in a variety of situations and combine most freely with other preverbal modifiers. Sequential event subject indexes are used to mark the second and subsequent verb in complex clauses that encode sequential events with the same subject. Irrealis subject indexes are used in interrogatives and negative modality constructions, among others. The objects of transitive verbs can be encoded by an object pro-index, which can take four different forms. Ahamb has SVO word order. Negation can be expressed in a number of ways, including a separate prohibitive coding and a negative modality particle. Different verb-like forms can function as prepositions and deictic markers. Complementation can be expressed with or without a complementiser, corresponding to a distinction in the semantic properties of the complement taking verb. Verb serialisation has been attested on the nuclear and core level. A special type of nuclear serialisation-like construction involves coverbs – non-prototypical verb forms that are only attested in such constructions. On the core level, switch-function and ambient serialisation is attested. Subordination is possible with a large variety of conjunctions. Other complex clause types include sequential event constructions and both syndetic and asydentic coordinating constructions.
The potters of Espiritu Santo : A socio-historical study of survival and loss of tradition
(The University of Waikato, 2020) Pascal, Elizabeth Marie; Macdonald, Fraser; Campbell, John;
This dissertation looks at the traditional pottery of the Cumberland Peninsula on the island of Espiritu Santo in the context of its relationships with its makers, their history, traditional institutions and contact experiences, and also with other pottery in Vanuatu, in particular, the different pottery made further south on the same coast, that of the people of Wusi. The relationship between potteries is a persistent theme, starting with an attempt to trace their inheritance from the Lapita pottery believed to be made by the first colonisers of the region, and going on to compare the two technologies with each other and other ethnographically known potteries in Oceania. With doubt remaining about their precise relationship, the roles of contact history and cultural practice in the environments of the two areas are looked at to account for first an enhancement and then a decline of pottery making on the Cumberland Peninsula, while the comparative environmental harshness of the Wusi area has, in similar cultural and historic conditions, actually acted to help preserve pottery making there.
What makes constitutions legitimate? A legal analysis of constitutions and legitimacy: The example of Fiji.
(The University of Waikato, 2019) Shameem, Shaista; Hammond, Grant; Wilson, Margaret; Morgan, Gay; Neilson, David; Morse, Bradford W.
The title of this thesis What makes Constitutions Legitimate? A Legal Analysis of Constitutions and Legitimacy: the Example of Fiji gives an indication of its subject matter and its significance to understanding the relationship between legitimacy and legality in constitutional theory. In light of early studies of constitutionalism and case law from the first constitutional case to the most recent in Fiji after a revolution or regime change has occurred the common understanding was that legitimacy and legality were two different theoretical concepts. Legality was obtained through effectiveness and success while legitimacy's attributes were justice and morality. It seemed that legality was more important than legitimacy in any declaration of a successful regime change. However, recent scholarship suggests that a deficit in legitimacy is also necessarily a failure of legality. Without justice and morality there is no legality in any constitutional order and thus, following John Locke and specific constitutional provisions appearing in modern constitutions, the lack of legitimacy, precisely because it also indicates absence of legality, gives the citizenry the right to revolt. The question is whether there is a common understanding of the meaning of justice and morality. Morality now refers to rights represented by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Justice, on the other hand, is more complex- it incorporates a series of qualities which developed incrementally through the centuries of human progress. Each of these qualities is relevant for a particular time and socio-economic and political space. But, above all, the main quality of justice that seems to be consistent over time are the concepts of fair and independent delivery of law and free access to the mechanisms of justice. The application of these concepts to the Fijian context reveals that in most Fijian constitutional instruments from 1865 to date both fair and independent delivery of justice and access to the mechanisms of justice were assured. The two exceptions were the 1990 Constitution and the 2013 Constitution. In both these documents fair and independent delivery of justice and access to the courts were limited by ouster clauses. In the case of the 2013 Constitution the ouster provisions are so serious as to dislodge the fundamental grundnorm of Fiji established by the first Constitution of 1865, reinforced by the 1970 Constitution, where people's rights were considered to be free and unfettered. The 21st century constitutional situation thus triggers the right to rebel should the citizens of Fiji feel so inclined. To fend off the risk of violence in the community in response to the unlawful and illegitimate 2013 Constitution what is proposed in this thesis is a new Constitution, based on the last consensus based instruments, namely the 1997 Constitution fortified by the 2008 People's Charter. The innovative methodology of autopoiesis is used to draft the framework and principles of a justice-defined Fijian Constitution for the future.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in New Zealand: phylogeny and structural biology
(The University of Waikato, 2019) Claire Vignette, Mulholland; Arcus, Vickery L.; Cursons, Raymond T.
Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an obligate human pathogen and is the primary causative agent of tuberculosis. New Zealand has a relatively low incidence of tuberculosis disease, however, Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) and Pacific People are disproportionally affected. Molecular typing shows that approximately two-thirds of M. tuberculosis isolates from New Zealand-born patients can be assigned to clusters of related strains. The largest M. tuberculosis cluster in New Zealand is known as the ‘Rangipo’ cluster and is predominantly found in Māori. This strain has been the source of several tuberculosis outbreaks over the last 30 years and anecdotal evidence suggests it may be particularly virulent. Two other large clusters, known as the ‘Southern Cross’ and ‘Otara’ clusters, most commonly occur in Pacific People. Here, whole genome sequencing, phylogenetics and structural biology were used to investigate evolutionary origins and functional consequences of genomic diversity in New Zealand M. tuberculosis clusters, with a particular focus on the Rangipo strain. Analysis of Rangipo strain non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs) identified bacterial genetic factors that may contribute to the high transmissibility of this strain. The F420-dependent oxidoreductase Rv2893 harbours a Rangipo-specific G72S mutation encoded by a nsSNP. H37Rv and Rangipo Rv2893 structures were solved and show the effect of this G72S mutation. Binding of the F420 cofactor was confirmed and characterised. SNP analyses also guided the optimisation of a diagnostic assay for rapid Rangipo strain classification at low cost and with high discriminatory power. Phylogenetic analyses revealed the Rangipo and Otara clusters belong to a larger M.tuberculosis clade of French/European origin that is also prevalent in indigenous populations in Canada. Molecular dating indicates dispersal of this clade to the South Pacific was driven by expanding European trade networks in the early 19th century and identifies host factors that have contributed to the dispersal and expansion of the Rangipo and Otara strains. Overall, these results show that relatively recent changes in host ecology have likely played a crucial role in driving the success of the Rangipo strain in New Zealand and point to bacterial genetic factors that may influence its virulence and thereby also contribute to its prevalence.
Everyone, no-one, someone and the Native Hawaiian learner: How expanded equality narratives might account for guarantee/reality gaps, historico-legal context and an admission policy which is actually levelling the playing field
(University of Waikato, 2016) Hemi, Keakaokawai Varner; Breen, Claire; Morse, Bradford W.; May, Stephen
This thesis asks how a school which was established to help a group of children consistently identified with disparities in education achieve equality—and which has actually done so—could be sued for discrimination because it prefers those children in admissions. In search of answers, this thesis critically analyzes the narratives of equality evident in the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s reasoning in Doe v Kamehameha Schools, arguing that the dissent, majority and concurrence opinions suggest three conflicting narratives of equality—what the thesis calls the adamant everyone/no-one, weak someone and limited indigenous learner narratives. It demonstrates how these narratives reflect an identity-specific, racialized history of slavery and segregation but fail to account entirely for either the unique historico-legal history of the Native Hawaiian people or the huge gap between formal constitutional guarantees of equality and everyday realities of complex discrimination and disparities almost unrelentingly attracted to Native Hawaiian identity. It recommends an expansion of these narratives within federal law consistent with liberal theory, international law and the legal experience of a sister settler jurisdiction—Aotearoa New Zealand. More importantly, it demonstrates that such expansion is consistent with substantial equality, non-discrimination and rights of self-determination that may have the greatest capacity for reconciling the guarantee/reality gap. Finally, specific good, better and best recommendations are made including philosophical consistency with the expanded multi-narrative, and the intentional importation of the human right to education and Article 14 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007 into federal law.
The Sorcerers' Apprentice: A life of Reo Franklin Fortune, Anthropologist
(University of Waikato, 2011) Thomas, Caroline; Ryan, Tom; Cowling, Wendy
Between the two World Wars, the two main schools in world anthropology were the American and the British. The former was dominated by Franz Boas and his graduate students, while in Britain and its Empire the dominant figures were A. R. Radcliffe-Brown and Bronislaw Malinowski. These leaders acted as patrons to their students, assisting them in getting access to funding, field locations, and jobs. Few crossed the divide to work in both the paradigms and their respective institutions, but one who did was Reo Franklin Fortune. His place within the history of Anthropology has, however, to date remained little more than a footnote. There can be no doubt that Fortune contributed significantly to the development of modern field-based anthropological methods and arguments. All together, he undertook five full years of fieldwork, in cultures located as diversely as the Pacific Islands, New Guinea, East Asia and North America. Contemporary anthropology sometimes remembers Fortune for his well-known ethnographies Sorcerers of Dobu (1932) and Manus Religion (1935). More often, it merely recalls him as the second of Margaret Mead’s three husbands. Unfortunately too, Mead, her friends, and biographers have often portrayed Fortune in an unfavourable light. This work tries to present a more balanced story. It employs archival material to reconstruct the life of Fortune, demonstrating the complexity of his thinking and of his social and academic relationships. Each chapter demarcates a chronological period in Fortune’s life. Wherever possible, his own words and those of his friends, colleagues and associates are used to help tell the story. The person who emerges is highly talented and principled, with a strong sense of honesty and truth, but who is often betrayed or misunderstood by those around him.
Nitrate radical addition–elimination reactions of atmospherically relevant sulfur-containing moleculesw
(The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2010) Kurten, Theo; Lane, Joseph R.; Jorgensen, Solvejg; Kjaergaard, Henrik G.
We have used different computational methods, including B3LYP, CCSD(T)-F12 and CBS-QB3, to study and compare the addition–elimination reaction of the nitrate radical NO₃ with four sulfur-containing species relevant to atmospheric chemistry: hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), dimethyl sulfide [(CH₃)₂S], dimethyl sulfoxide [(CH3)₂SO] and sulfur dioxide (SO₂). We find that the reaction with (CH₃)₂SO to give NO₂ + (CH₃)₂SO₂ has a very low barrier, and is likely to be the dominant oxidation mechanism for (CH₃)₂SO in the atmosphere. In agreement with previous experimental data and computational results, we find that the reaction with H₂S and SO₂ is very slow, and the reaction with (CH₃)₂S is not competitive with the hydrogen abstraction route. The differences in reaction energetics and rates between the four species are explained in terms of stabilizing interactions in the transition states and differences in sulfur–oxygen bond strengths.
Between World Views: Nascent Pacific Tourism Enterprise in New Zealand
(The University of Waikato, 2009) Cave, Jennifer Barbara Jane
This thesis considers the dynamics of entrepreneurship at the 'pre-tourism' stage of tourism development. It is written from the point of view of potential tourism hosts, diasporan Pacific peoples resident in New Zealand. The central question is 'that societal marginality can be a positive position from which to develop tourism enterprise and cultural product'. The author used a collaborative action approach (Lopez Potter, 2001) to respond to a community, rather than an academic agenda. The research question reflects the aspirations of the Waitakere Pacific Board (WPB), an organisation which advocates for and undertakes projects to move towards economic, social and cultural equality with the mainstream western population, on behalf of nine diasporan Pacific communities. It tacitly assumes that the nine 'Pacific' communities share common views and values and are all at a similar stage of integration or hegemony and that the WPB speaks on their behalf. It further assumes that Pacific ethnic communities in Waitakere are in fact marginalised and that they all wish to and are capable of initiating commercial enterprise and tourism product. Also, there is an expectation that non-Pacific peoples consume products and services that are based upon Pacific cultural knowledge and resources. But most importantly, assumes that tourism can be as viable in a diasporan New Zealand non-indigenous context as it is in the Islands today. The core thesis is underpinned by three other questions. Specifically, what are the diasporan Pacific community's aspirations for tourism and cultural enterprise to support tourism? What factors enable or inhibit interaction at the interface between diasporan Pacific communities and tourism product/cultural enterprise? What happens at the interface between diasporan communities and consumers? Contemporary non-instrument navigation is used as a metaphor for the research voyage, the structure of the thesis, and each community's journey in diasporan social worlds.
Context and change in management accounting and control systems: A case study of Telecom Fiji Limited
(The University of Waikato, 2009) Sharma, Umesh Prasad
This thesis aims to contribute to research in management accounting and control systems (MACS) in a developing country context: that of Fiji. It seeks to gain a theoretical understanding of how MACS reflect the social and political contexts in which they operate by using a case study of Telecom Fiji Limited (a major supplier of telephone communications in Fiji). The definition of MACS for the purpose of the thesis is broad- a social constructivist perspective is adopted in which systems are used to align employee behaviour with organisational objectives and to assist external relationships (with the State, Commerce Commission, aid agencies and customers). The thesis draws on institutional theory while raising questions as to how to refine and extend institutional theory. This theory has often been associated with institutional embeddedness (stability). The social constructivist approach helps to incorporate agency and cultural issues normally missing in conventional applications of institutional theory to accounting change. Telecom Fiji Limited (TFL) was restructured under the Fiji government's public sector reforms. Such reforms were insisted upon by the international financial agencies of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Under the reform policy, TFL was transformed from a government department into a corporatised organisation and was subsequently privatised. The MACS changes which eventuated helped to change TFL management and employees' interpretive schemes. However, employees resisted initial changes to commercial business routines and it took some years for TFL actors to assimilate commercial practices. While the literature dealing with MACS changes has mostly portrayed changes as occurring with little resistance, MACS changes at TFL took several years to become institutionalised, partly because of cultural and political factors specific to Fiji. The study has practice implications as it shows that management accountants can act as institutional entrepreneurs in organisations, shaping new accounting technologies in reformed entities, and changing actors' interpretive schemes. The study has implications for policy makers, consultants and other stakeholders in terms of promoting a need for better understanding of the sensitivity to cultural and political circumstances in Less Developed Countries (LDC's) like Fiji in relation to the introduction of MACS changes. The study has implications for other recently corporatized/ privatised and state-sector organisations in Fiji and elsewhere. It also has implications for other researchers as institutional theory can be refined on the basis of new empirical evidence.

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