The Meaning of Whitemen

Race and Modernity in the Orokaiva Cultural World

By: Ira Bashkow

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Hardcover | 17 July 2006 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
328 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.36 x 1.53 x 0.25

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A familiar cultural presence for people the world over, “the whiteman” has come to personify the legacy of colonialism, the face of Western modernity, and the force of globalization. Focusing on the cultural meanings of whitemen in the Orokaiva society of Papua New Guinea, this book provides a fresh approach to understanding how race is symbolically constructed and why racial stereotypes endure in the face of counterevidence.

While Papua New Guinea’s resident white population has been severely reduced due to postcolonial white flight, the whiteman remains a significant racial and cultural other here—not only as an archetype of power and wealth in the modern arena, but also as a foil for people’s evaluations of themselves within vernacular frames of meaning. As Ira Bashkow explains, ideas of self versus other need not always be anti-humanistic or deprecatory, but can be a creative and potentially constructive part of all cultures.

A brilliant analysis of whiteness and race in a non-Western society, The Meaning of Whitemen turns traditional ethnography to the purpose of understanding how others see us.

Industry Reviews

"In the very best tradition of anthropology, this is a book that will force readers to confront their settled understandings and rethink many things they thought they knew about the cultural construction of racial formations and about whiteness as a global phenomenon. A milestone in the anthropology of the Pacific, this is quite simply a great book to think with."--Joel Robbins, author of Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society

--Joel Robbins (2/20/2006 12:00:00 AM)

"We are one of the others. Deconstructing the ancient sociology of in-group versus out-group, this finely observed and brilliantly interpreted ethnography of a New Guinea people's conceptions of whitemen fashions a powerful new paradigm for the study of intercultural relations. Incidentally, damn good reading."--Marshall Sahlins

--Marshall Sahlins (2/20/2006 12:00:00 AM)

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Psychology Society & Culture Social Issues & Processes Social Discrimination & Inequality Sociology & Anthropology Anthropology Social & Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography Social Groups Ethnic Studies Black & Asian Studies Cultural Studies

Archaeology

Acknowledgments
Note on Orthographic Conventions
Introduction: The Cultural Construction of Whitemen
Cultural World, Postcolonial Situation
The Lightness of Whitemen
The Bodies of Whitemen
The Foods of Whitemen
Conclusion: Whitemen Beyond
Notes
References
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

The Meaning of Whitemen

Race and Modernity in the Orokaiva Cultural World

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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