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Sixth Conference of the
European Society for Oceanists (ESfO)
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Pacific Challenges: Questioning concepts, rethinking conflicts
Marseille (France), 6-8 July 2005
Paper abstracts
Show a list of all papers
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01: Colonial grievances info | papers
02: Reshaping Indigenous worlds info | papers
03: Dynamics of Pacific Religiosity info | papers
04: Mapping Oceania info | papers
05: Rethinking political conflicts, beyond ethnicity info | papers
06: Cultural festivals info | papers
07: Enchantments of technology info | papers
08: Ownership in effect info | papers
09: Spiritual material info | papers
10: Endangered Languages info | papers
11: Transculturation info | papers
12: New Caledonia in Oceania info | papers
13: Keynotes info | papers
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| id: | 7 | | Title: | Enchantments of Technology in the Urban (and Not-So Urban) Pacific | | Number of papers: | 9 | | Organizers: | Sykes, Karen
(University of Manchester, England) | | Abstract: | As social theorists argue for the global adoption of Euro-American network models to level modern and traditional hierarchies into new egalitarian sociality, anthropologists might reflect: How do technology and technique constitute and concentrate Pacific sociality? What sense should anthropologists make of Pacific network models that define technology within a differential calculus of kin, workmates, friends and citizens? For example, where technology is understood as a joke or a trick played on village kin in town, or on the entire village as when cargo cultists waited for airplanes? Also, consider that various bodily techniques conjoin humans and machines, or compose body decoration and style to differentiate bush, village, settlement or town? Participants will:
Critique technology as a vector of change, and Euro-American technological idioms such as ‘connect’ or ‘download’ to describe sociality globally. For example, how do the habits of ‘taking care of public telephones’ or ‘time thrift’ at work shape sociality.
Demark differential personal and body techniques such as name changing, transmogrification, or transvestism as means to distinguish the milieu of bush, village and town—as when ‘big men’ become ‘big-shots’, school students change names and alter gender, or hunters adopt ‘bush’ names and dress.
Elaborate Pacific techniques as they unfold from each other, leaving behind the trace of a network of transactions or connections that model sociality.
Revise various earlier Euro-American network models that animate technology in sociality—from the Manchester School’s peri-urban, to Latour’s ANT, to Cassells’s network society. |
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