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Michael C. Howard

Forfatter af Contemporary cultural anthropology

27 Works 131 Members 1 Review

Om forfatteren

Michael C. Howard is a professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He is the editor of the series Studies in the Material Cultures of Southeast Asia and author or editor of more than 30 books.

Omfatter også følgende navne: Michael C Howarrd, Michael C. Howard

Værker af Michael C. Howard

Contemporary cultural anthropology (1983) 54 eksemplarer
The Palaung in Northern Thailand (2002) 4 eksemplarer

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Michael Howard’s “Fiji: Race and Politics in an Island State” provides interesting insight into Fijian and Pacific politics, despite its liberal weaknesses. Fiji, the author argues, is no democratic and racial paradise but rather is an extremely divided country, a fact that the country’s repeated military coups in the 1980s and early 2000s serve to highlight.

Fijians are divided by class, between workers and capitalists; by race, between indigenous or native Fijians, Indo-Fijians (the descendants of slaves/indentured servants the British brought to Fiji from India), and Europeans; by region, especially between East and West, the Eastern chiefly elite historically having collaborated with British colonialism and having close relations with Tonga, and the Western chiefly elite having distinguished itself by its resistance to colonialism; and by rank, between commoners and the chiefly elite.

Reading this book, I couldn’t help but find parallels between the power struggles within Fiji since independence in 1970 and those in South Africa and Israel, which Fiji’s conservative leaders have cultivated close relations with. The apartheid aims of the ultra-nationalist Taukei movement, which conservative leaders such as former PM Mara cultivated for decades, and those in the Fijian military are identical to apartheid South Africa and Zionists in Israel. (It is interesting to note that former Fijian soldiers, like former apartheid-era South African soldiers, have frequently been recruited as mercenaries to serve in U.S.-led wars.)

The biggest weakness with the book is the author’s excessive dependence and focus on electoral politics and individuals. His analysis of Fijian politics would be far more interesting — and more complete — if the issue of class was raised more frequently in relation to Fiji’s repeated military coups, not just race.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
TJ_Petrowski | Aug 18, 2019 |

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Værker
27
Medlemmer
131
Popularitet
#154,467
Vurdering
½ 3.3
Anmeldelser
1
ISBN
39
Sprog
2

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