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197 Notes Chapter 1: Introduction 1. The Solomons Pijin word kastom is derived from the English word “custom .” While the usage of the term by Solomon Islanders often closely approximates the meanings of the English words “custom,” “tradition,” and “culture,” it is polysemic, and we must be aware of the pitfalls of interpreting kastom as referring to some sort of timeless and unchanging pre-European way of life. As will be discussed below in this chapter, kastom has taken on specific historical, political, and place-based meanings and is frequently invoked in ways that emphasize change and adaptation, as well as continuity with the past. We will also see that kastom has been deployed by Solomon Islanders as a symbol of islandwide unity and solidarity, and as ideology of political resistance. 2. The Constitution of Solomon Islands 1978 establishes that only Solomon Islanders and the state may hold a perpetual title in land. According to an assessment published in 2008, around 87 percent of land in Solomon Islands is held under customary ownership (Commonwealth of Australia 2008). Of the remaining 13 percent of land that is registered, 8 percent is governmentowned and 5 percent is held as Perpetual Estates by Solomon Islanders. The nature of customary tenure varies from place to place, but a basic definition is that it consists of “a balance between group and individual rights and obligations , with land ownership being held at group level and land use being exercised at the individual or household level” (Fingleton 2005, 4). The relationship between customary landownership and social organization is examined in chapter 2. 3. The title of this section is thanks to Nordstrom (1997). 4. While acknowledging the difficulties inherent in attempting to identify “culture areas,” following Knauft (1999, 1), I delineate Melanesia as the region stretching from New Caledonia in the southeast to the island of New Guinea 198 ◊ Notes to Pages 7–16 in the northwest. Included are the postcolonial nations of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji; the French overseas country of New Caledonia ; and the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. 5. Estimates of the numbers of deaths and casualties vary widely. Between one hundred and two hundred people were killed as a direct result of the fighting between late 1998 and late 2000. Around thirty-five thousand people were displaced during this period. It is likely that a further fifty people were killed between late 2000 and July 2003. Fighting on the Weather Coast of Guadalcanal during this period saw the displacement of a further fifteen hundred to two thousand people. 6. The strength and resilience of the country’s thousands of rural communities , in social, spiritual, and physical terms, meant that the impacts of the conflict were much less severe than they could have been (see Hviding 2011). 7. The greed thesis has been robustly critiqued in the “beyond greed and grievance” literature (see, for example, Ballentine and Sherman 2003; Cramer 2002, 2006; and Richards 2004). 8. Papua New Guinea (PNG) and the Autonomous Region of Bougainville share a border with Solomon Islands. Following a ten-year secessionist conflict characterized by periods of bitter internecine fighting, the island of Bougainville achieved autonomy status within PNG in 2001 (which was subsequently formalized with the adoption of Bougainville’s constitution in 2005). Colonial and missionary discourses of race contributed to the emergence of a Bougainvillean identity, providing a means with which Bougainvilleans could distinguish themselves from “other” Papua New Guineans in general and PNG Highlanders (the “redskins”) in particular (Nash and Ogan 1990). 9. For critiques of the “ethnic conflict” framing, see Dinnen (2002) and Kabutaulaka (2001). 10. See Ross (2004) for a useful review of these studies. 11. There are “weak” and “strong” versions of the greed thesis. In the weak version, the presence of lootable commodities is seen as providing the opportunity to finance rebellion. In the strong version, the opportunity for predation becomes in itself the motive to rebel (see Collier 2001; Collier and Hoeffler 2004; Grossman 1999). 12. “Masta Liu” is a term derived from north Malaitan languages meaning to wander around aimlessly. It is a pejorative reference to the young unemployed men who frequent the streets of Honiara. See Frazer (1985a, 1985b) and Jourdan (1995a). 13. See Bryant (1998) and Walker (2005) for reviews of the field and Greenberg and Park (1994) for a discussion of its intellectual genealogy. 14. Also see the contributions to Peluso and Watts (2001b). 15. The term “micronationalism” was first employed...

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