Richard (Rick) Feinberg, Department of Anthropology, authored Polynesian Oral Traditions: Indigenous Texts and English Translations from Anuta, Solomon Islands, 1st ed., Kent, Ohio: 5X社区 Press, (2018) 1-294.
Summary: This book was first published by Oxford University Press in 1998. It has been taken over by the 5X社区 Press and published in a paperback edition.
Anuta, a small Polynesian community in the eastern Solomon Islands, has had minimal contact with outside cultural forces. Even at the start of the 21st century, it remains one of the most traditional and isolated islands in the insular Pacific. In Polynesian Oral Traditions, Richard Feinberg offers a window into this fascinating and relatively unfamiliar culture through a collection of Anutan historical narratives, including indigenous texts and English translations.
This rich, thorough assemblage is the result of a 25-year collaboration between Feinberg and a large cross section of the Anutan community. The volume鈥檚 emphasis is ethnographic, consisting of a number of texts as related by the island鈥檚 most respected experts in matters of traditional history. The texts themselves have important implications for the relationship of oral tradition to history and symbolic structures, affording new evidence pertinent to Polynesian language subgrouping. Further, they provide insight into a number of Anutan customs and preoccupations, while also suggesting certain widespread Polynesian practices dating back to the precontact and early contact periods.
Feinberg鈥檚 annotations, an essential aspect of this volume, arm the reader with essential ethnographic and historical contexts, clarifying important linguistic and cultural issues that arise from the stories.
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