ARTICLES AND DIALOGUE
Introduction, p. 307
Terence Wesley-Smith
The Meanings of Work in Contemporary Palau: Policy Implications of Globalization in the Pacific, p. 319
Karen L Nero, Fermina Brel Murray, and Michael L Burton
Abstract: Economic and political changes in Palau in the last two decades have led to a rapid increase in the numbers of foreign workers. At current levels of growth, Palauans could become a minority in their own country. We examine the global processes that have produced this phenomenon and discuss their social and cultural impacts on Palau. In doing so we examine ways the meanings of work in Palau are understood, and how these are changing. We conclude that a new distinctly Palauan system of occupations is emerging that is neither traditional nor purely western and that is widely shared between Palauans and non-Palauans.
Keywords: foreign labor, globalization, occupations, Palau, work
Palauans and Guest Workers: An Opinion Paper, p. 349
Sandra S Pierantozzi
Exporting People: The Philippines and Contract Labor in Palau, p. 359
Dean Alegado and Gerard Finin
Remaking Footprints: Palauan Migrants in Hawai`i, p. 371
Isebong Asang
Placing Movers: An Overview of the Asian-Pacific Migration System, p. 385
Jon Goss and Bruce Lindquist
Abstract: Conventional wisdom seems to have it that the world has entered a “new age of migration” in which the international movement of labor is qualitatively and quantitatively distinct from the past. The dominant paradigm links labor movement to economic development, particularly for Asian migration, explaining migration in terms of differentials in labor demand and wages, while Pacific scholars have generally resorted to the particularities of Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian cultures and island societies. This paper rejects these assumptions. We first describe the history of the Asia-Pacific migration system in three phases—the Age of Indenture, the Period of the Guest Worker, and the Era of Contract Labor Migration—establishing the scale and duration of flows and examining some of the mechanisms. We then review competing explanations of international migration, arguing that a key factor that economistic and essentialist explanations overlook is networks and institutions. We show how these are both reproduced and recreated in similar forms, and that transnational communities are almost inevitably the result.
Keywords: Asian migration, indenture, international labor migration, migration networks, migration systems, overseas contract workers, Pacific Islands
Niche or Mass Market? The Regional Context of Tourism in Palau, p. 415
Lonny Carlile
The Japanese Encounter with the South: Japanese Tourists in Palau, p. 437
Shinji Yamashita
Abstract: This paper examines some sociocultural implications of Palauan tourism through the lens of Japanese tourists. In 1997, Palau had some seventy thousand international visitors, of whom more than twenty thousand were Japanese, second only to the Taiwanese, whose visits have been increasing rapidly in recent years. After discussing the general characteristics of tourism in Palau, I investigate the Japanese way of encountering Palau, not only through contemporary tourism, but also in its historical context. Tracing the history of Japanese colonial expansion to the South, the paper pays special attention to the Japanese type of orientalism, in which Japan needed to orientalize the South as a backward and undeveloped place in order to de-orientalize Japan as an advanced and modernized country. The paper also argues that this Japanese orientalism is at work in contemporary postcolonial Pacific tourism. Analyzing the interregional interaction of Japan and Palau in this way, I explore how the Pacific is situated in the larger modern world system.
Keywords: colonialism, cultural identity, Japanese orientalism, Palau, sustainable development, tourism
Taiwan’s Foreign Economic Relations with Developing Nations: A Case Study of Its Ties with Palau, p. 465
Eric Harwit
Eco-consciousness and Development in Palau, p. 481
Minoru F Ueki
RESOURCES
A Selected Bibliography of Economic Development in the Republic of Palau, p. 488
Jane Barnwell
POLITICAL REVIEWS
The Region in Review: International Issues and Events, 1999, p. 497
Stewart Firth
Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 1999, p. 507
David A Chappell, Anita Jowitt, Sandra Tarte
BOOK AND MEDIA REVIEWS
Queen Salote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900-1965, by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem, p. 526
Reviewed by George E Marcus 526
American Anthropology in Micronesia: An Assessment, edited by Robert C Kiste and Mac Marshall, p. 528
Reviewed by Michael D Lieber
The Pacific Islands: Environment and Society, edited by Moshe Rapaport, p. 530
Reviewed by Tim Bayliss-Smith
Fiji in Transition: Research Papers of the Fiji Constitution Review Commission, volume 1, and Fiji and the World: Research Papers of the Fiji Constitution Review Commission, volume 2, edited by Brij V Lal and Tomasi R Vakatora, p. 533
Reviewed by Robbie Robertson
An Introduction to the Anthropology of Melanesia: Culture and Tradition, by Paul Sillitoe, p. 535
Reviewed by Helen Johnson
The Magical Body: Power, Fame and Meaning in a Melanesian Society, by Richard Eves, p. 538
Reviewed by Jane Fajans
Cultures of Secrecy: Reinventing Race in Bush Kaliai Cargo Cults, by Andrew Lattas, p. 540
Reviewed by Joel Robbins
Music at the Borders: Not Drowning, Waving and Their Engagement with Papua New Guinean Culture (1986-96), by Philip Hayward, and Sound Alliances: Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Politics and Popular Music in the Pacific, edited by Philip Hayward, p. 542
Reviewed by Ian Maxwell
To Labour with the State: The Fiji Public Service Association, by Jacqueline Leckie, p. 545
Reviewed by Edward D Beechert
Perspectives on the Bird’s Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia: Proceedings of the Conference, Leiden, 13-17 October 1997, edited by Jelle Miedema, Cecilia Ode, and Rien A C Dam, p. 547
Reviewed by Chris Ballard
Across the Great Divide: Journeys in History and Anthropology, by Bronwen Douglas, p. 549
Reviewed by Alice Bullard
Gutsini Posa (Rough seas), by Regis Stella, p. 551
Reviewed by Steven Edmund Winduo
Baby No-Eyes, by Patricia Grace, p. 554
Reviewed by Reina Whaitiri
O Tamaiti (The children) and Velvet Dreams, p. 557
Reviewed by Selina Tusitala Marsh
Kava: The Drink of the Gods, p. 559
Reviewed by Robert Early
Kilim Taem, p. 561
Reviewed by Lissant Bolton
Selo! Selo! Bigfala Canoe, p. 564
Reviewed by Lamont Lindstrom