Rodolfo Maggio | University of Helsinki (original) (raw)

Publications by Rodolfo Maggio

Island Studies Journal, 2023

"I'm sorry, but that's bribery," said reporter Tom Steinfort to Vanuatu Minister of Foreign Affai... more "I'm sorry, but that's bribery," said reporter Tom Steinfort to Vanuatu Minister of Foreign Affairs Ralph John Regenvanu regarding the supposed support of the island state to China in United Nations resolutions, hypothetically framed as reciprocation for an unprecedented influx of foreign capital. This conceptualization of bribery rests upon recent value negotiations concerning the moral economy of corruption within the context of the 'China threat' debate in Oceania. A decolonial methodology is necessary to prevent this superimposition of colonial interests upon indigenous views in journalistic reports, social media outlets, and academic publications. It is, therefore, necessary to interrogate the position from which reporters, journalists, and scholars speak or write about corruption in diplomatic relations in an increasingly Sinicized Pacific. This approach appreciates localized forms of theorizing indigenous ideas about appropriate economic behaviors in the context of new geopolitical relations. In the absence of a decolonial methodology, such ideas might become invisible, along with the intrinsic features of new Sino-Pacific relations.

The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2022

The residents of Gilbert Camp, an illegal settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, the capital cit... more The residents of Gilbert Camp, an illegal settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, the capital city of Solomon Islands, recurrently declare that life in town is hard. However, they have been migrating there, they keep doing so notwithstanding great challenges, and create the conditions for others to settle too. The apparent contradiction between their ideas and behaviours is resolved by looking at their home-making practices, and interpreting negative statements as commentaries. These commentaries evaluate their efforts to turn Honiara into a home and a place where they can live the "good" life. Home is not just a matter of urban belonging and place-making, neither it is just a matter of surviving in the "hard" urban context; rather it is a complex negotiation between cultural priorities, the specific needs of local communities, and their commitment to create a home away from home.

Pacific Perspectives, 2021

The travel restrictions implemented to limit the spread of the COVID19 pandemic prevent fieldwork... more The travel restrictions implemented to limit the spread of the COVID19 pandemic prevent fieldworkers from collecting ethnographic data in the Pacific. The possibility of collecting first-hand data about indigenous perspectives on the recent growth of the Chinese presence and influence is therefore limited too. Despite the critical need for this kind of data, the situation provides an opportunity for a concerted reflection on the conceptual tools scholars deploy to study China in the Pacific. A decolonial methodology seems necessary to prevent the superimposition of preconceived ideas upon indigenous views that, at the moment, can only be accessed in journalistic and social media outlets. It interrogates the position from which scholars speak or write, the benefit derived from theorizing indigenous ideas, and the extent to which, in the absence of a decolonial methodology, such ideas might become invisible. Although the theoretical explanation of how the deconstruction of these conceptual tools can be conducted is specifically focused on the Pacific, the proposed interaction between anthropology, environmental science, and geopolitics could potentially be applied in other research endeavors.

I Kwara'ae di Honiara Migrazione e buona vita alle Isole Salomone, 2019

Indice, prefazione e introduzione alla monografia etnografica I Kwara'ae di Honiara Migrazione e ... more Indice, prefazione e introduzione alla monografia etnografica I Kwara'ae di Honiara Migrazione e buona vita alle Isole Salomone.

La prefazione è stata scritta da David Graeber in risposta alla critica della sua teoria del valore contenuta nelle conclusioni della monografia.

Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies, 2019

An increasing number of Japanese ethnographers have conducted fieldwork research in Pacific Islan... more An increasing number of Japanese ethnographers have conducted fieldwork research in Pacific Islands in the last few decades, which has resulted in a growing corpus of ethnographic literature. This is partly related to the historical role that Japan has played in the Pacific and partly to its geographical proximity to the area. While this geo-historical advantage combines with the availability of ethnographic works produced by non-Japanese scholars, the latter remain largely unable to access anthropological literature only available in Japanese. This not only limits the international circulation of ethnographies produced by Japanese anthropologists of the Pacific, but also the possibility of engaging with a larger body of anthropological traditions and, thus, with the overall project of 'World Anthropologies'. This article discusses the reasons why Japanese ethnographies of the Pacific provide not only a technical advantage for non-Japanese scholars of Pacific islands, but also a qualitative difference in terms of anthropological perspectives. In particular, it examines the differential impact of different colonial and postcolonial debates on Japanese and Anglophone anthropology in relation to ethnographies of urban Melanesia.

DADA, 2020

In the last few decades, numerous Japanese ethnographers have been conducting research in the Sol... more In the last few decades, numerous Japanese ethnographers have been conducting research in the Solomon Islands. That resulted in a growing corpus of anthropological literature touching on various themes. The historical role that Japan has played in the Pacific, as well as its geographical proximity to the area, gave Japanese anthropologists a vantage point in terms of access, and a different perspective on these issues. The geo-historical advantage combines with the availability of ethnographic works produced by non-Japanese scholars, however the latter remain largely unable to access anthropological literature only available in Japanese. This not only limits the international circulation of ethnographies produced by Japanese anthropologists, but also the possibility of engaging with their different perspectives. This paper contributes to making the work of Japanese anthropologists more easily accessible to non-Japanese scholars, thereby widening its circulation. More specifically, this paper argues that the perspectives of recent Japanese ethnographies of the Pacific open up novel research trajectories and possibilities for non-Japanese scholars of cargo cults. The post-colonial debate developed differently in Japanese and Anglophone anthropology, which resulted in a rather different approach to the study of cargo cults. This paper thus connects these recent studies and suggests future possibilities emerging from the engagement with these different perspectives.

Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 2017

This article analyses the case of Sikret Fren, a like-for- like gift exchange ritual organised by... more This article analyses the case of Sikret Fren, a like-for- like gift exchange ritual organised by the members of the Anglican church of Gilbert Camp, an illegal settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, Solomon Islands. The objects exchanged, the people involved, and their relationships are discussed according to Gregory’s analytical opposition between Gift and Commodity. The resulting categori- zation of people, objects, and relationships is looked at from the perspective of the Domestic Moral Economy developed by Peterson & Taylor. The article locates Sikret Fren in relation to the cultural, historical, geographical, and socio-economic context in which it was developed; illustrates the rationale behind the reciprocal transactions of identical gifts between ritual friends; and suggests that urban and peri-urban settlers use their cultural creati- vity in reaction to the moral and economic challenges caused by the incompatibilities between their values and their material conditions.

Maggio, R. 2018. 'According to Kastom and According to Law': 'Good Life' and 'Good Death' in Gilbert Camp, Solomon Islands. In Gregory & Altman (eds.) The quest for the good life , 2018

We can only discuss the death of a man according to the culture of that man. Culture of man, deci... more We can only discuss the death of a man according to the culture of that man. Culture of man, decision of man. (Nathan)

Those who see the world through the experience of precarity are unable to feel secure about the stability of present conditions or the predictability of the immediate future. Precarious is the equilibrium of balancing on a thin rope! Precarious is the truce between opposed parties! It is the life of those who live amid tensions between incompatible values, for they are constantly under the threat that one position will suddenly snap and the other prevail, destroying, or at least altering, whatever it is they are trying to build. If this is what precarity means for real people living in the contemporary world, then the people of Gilbert Camp can be described as journeying through precarious times.

Church organization, the notion of person, and the charismatic discourse on value in Pentecostal ... more Church organization, the notion of person, and the charismatic discourse on value in Pentecostal denominations deeply influence gender relations among church members. In turn, gender relations influence the ways in which the charismatic discourse is received and concretised. My analysis explores this complex process of mutual transformations of gender roles and conversion meanings among Pentecostal Christians in an illegal settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, Solomon Islands. In particular, I focus on how husband and wife in Pentecostal households change the way they look at each other as they undertake a process of charismatic renewal. My aim is to illustrate how the statement of a Kwara'ae man reveals the meaning of conversion as a long-term process that takes place relationally and under the influence of gendered values.

Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology

These research notes concern what anthropologists currently do, and can do, with stories. Althoug... more These research notes concern what anthropologists currently do, and can do, with stories. Although pleas for narrative have become increasingly widespread in contemporary anthropology, an anthropologist of storytelling cannot but recognise that all anthropological production is to a certain extent a story. A question ensues: what kind of story is an ethnography? These research notes propose an answer by providing, first, a working definition of story tailored to this specific purpose. Secondly, they propound a brief illustration of the three main thematic interests of the anthropology of storytelling: the relational dynamics between the people involved in the storytelling situation; the content of the story, and the storytelling techniques. Thirdly, these aspects are examined in order to claim that an anthropology of storytelling among contemporary anthropologists is a necessary condition to respond concretely to the above-mentioned plea for narrative.

Special Issue: Descent from Israel: Jewish Identities in the Pacific, Past and Present, Nov 2015

Kingdom tok is an expression that is increasingly used in Honiara. It describes a set of ideas an... more Kingdom tok is an expression that is increasingly used in Honiara. It describes a set of ideas and practices related to what Solomon Islanders see as a recent ‘season’ in their history. Such a season is characterised by the reappropriation of particular meanings of their faith that they perceive as influenced by recent historical processes such as the colonial era, the introduction of Christianity, and the first few decades from independence. In terms of ‘Kingdom’, they envision the possibility to challenge political hierarchies, social stratification, and issues of governance, as well as to re-define their identities in relation to a general state of empowerment. In Honiara, Pentecostal churches and groups with a strong identification with Judaism make use of Kingdom tok discourses. I claim that they experience the actualisation of Kingdom tok as concrete projects of social action and service provision, which they see as concrete alternatives to historical churches, the state, and the ‘way of the waitman’.

In this chapter, I combine data gathered through participant observation, interviews, and archiva... more In this chapter, I combine data gathered through participant observation, interviews, and archival and non-archival research of original documents, in order to inform an anthropological understanding of the history of Pentecostal churches in Honiara, Solomon Islands. The insights provided by this combina- tion of data sources enable me to question earlier understandings of Pentecostal mushrooming as a result of missionary efforts from outside, and propose some interpretations of the uniqueness of conversion patterns among Solomon Islanders. Without downplaying the role of foreign influences (cf. Dundon 2011, 3; Robbins, Stewart, and Strathern 2001), I argue that the growth of Pentecostal denominations—rather than being analyzed solely as part of an already highly Christianized territory—should also be interpreted as an inde- pendent move away from mainline churches.
This development connects closely to new desires of Solomon Islanders that have been stimulated by the possibilities offered in the contemporary reli- gious landscape. Furthermore, my interpretation relates to the ways in which specific forms of value within Melanesian relationships have been influenced by the growth of Pentecostalism in other South Pacific nations. For example, anthropologist of Christianity and Melanesia Annelin Eriksen observed that the relatively “new” Pentecostal churches in Ambrym, Vanuatu, “emphasize the importance of individual conversion and a personal encounter with God” while at the same time the “[e]galitarian and relational values which have been prominent in the Presbyterian Church become more marginal” (Eriksen 2012, 110). It appears that what it means to be Christian is a subject of constant debate in Melanesia today. It follows that highlighting the self-determining character of Pentecostal schisms in Honiara provides a critical perspective from which to look at the conflicts and convergences that shape contemporary Christian identities in both Solomon Islands and beyond.

Economic Anthropology, 2017

Please download the PDF to read the Abstract.

People and cultures of Oceania, 2017

Four layers of confusion obfuscate the issue of land in Gilbert Camp. First, residents ignore the... more Four layers of confusion obfuscate the issue of land in Gilbert Camp. First, residents ignore the intended representative of their residence rights. Second, they are confused regarding the "right" way to access land. Third, they do not know who the "real landowner" is. Fourth, the land boundary has changed continually since the foundation of Honiara. In this article, I try to clarify the confusing issue of land by looking at it from 3 perspectives: (1) The history of land policy in Solomon Islands reveals a long-standing neglect of the indigenous point of view regarding land; (2) ethnographic approaches illustrate how people react to such a dismissive attitude; and (3) the contemporary preference for patriliny among government officials exemplifies the tendency toward a form of "indigenous essentialism" in which the interests of policymakers and landowners converge. This article demonstrates that the issue of land is a legacy from the past that bears major consequences for the future of Solomon Islands.

DADA, 2018

The Kwara'ae people of Gilbert Camp, an unauthorized settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, Solo... more The Kwara'ae people of Gilbert Camp, an unauthorized settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, Solomon Islands, exchange gifts of food that circulate within networks extending up to their island of origin, Malaita. In this article, I draw a few analytical connections between the data collected during 13 months of fieldwork conducted between Malaita and Guadalcanal, and the existing literature on urban Melanesia. The result is a methodological and theoretical blurring of rural-urban oppositions that otherwise are so prominent in some ethnographies of urban Melanesia, as much as in the public discourse in Solomon Islands and elsewhere. Ethnographies of Solomon Islands and other areas of Melanesia rarely elaborate on such nuances and even less often the blurring of spatial oppositions is demonstrated on the basis of ethnographic data. This kind of data is provided in three tables and two figures included in the article, in order to contribute to shifting the focus of urban ethnographies of Melanesia away from the rural-urban divide. One of the foremost benefits of this shift is the realization that Kwara'ae migrants are neither importing their kastom into the town nor being absorbed by urban culture. What they are engaging in is a process of cultural creation that, although combining pre-existing elements, is fundamentally new. It follows that this article contributes also to the recent burgeoning of literature on home-making practices and migrants as city makers.

MAT, 2017

In November 2015, protests erupted in Oxford in response to the decision of the Oxfordshire Count... more In November 2015, protests erupted in Oxford in response to the decision of the Oxfordshire County Council to cut, among other things, forty-four Children’s Centres and seven Early Intervention Hubs. The debate about whether these centres could be considered as disposable or not did not get to an agreement. I argue that the main cause of this outcome is that the opposing arguments were based on moral positions that were not only incompatible but fundamentally incommensurable. Those in favour of reducing deficit spending argue that cuts to social services (including family and children services) are unavoidable. Parents, however, refuse to accept austerity measures that will undermine the rights of their children to access services that will improve their chances in life. Neither position is based on incontrovertible evidence. On the one hand, the decision to cut a given service always involves the arbitrary evaluation of that service against other services that will not be cut. On the other, the demand to fund those services is based on the hope that early intervention initiatives will benefit children, even if the evidence that early intervention works is unconclusive or thin. On the basis of a thematic analysis of twenty-seven stories written by Oxfordshire parents, I interpret this conflict using the notion of moral economy, and argue that such an approach allows an appreciation of the link between health economics, perinatal mental health, the morality of parenting, and the early intervention discourse.

Narrare i gruppi

Early intervention in child development has become co-existent with program evaluation by means o... more Early intervention in child development has become co-existent with program evaluation by means of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Although the polarized debate between detractors and promoters of quantitative methods is fading as the idea of interdisciplinarity gains programmatic traction, RCTs are still considered the "gold standard." The application of mixed methods remains limited in evaluation of program effectiveness. In this article I propose three possible forms of integration between ethnography and RCT in the field of early intervention in child development. I argue that such an integration is beneficial for evaluation research and, thus, for the delivery of better early intervention services. In the conclusion, I briefly discuss how drawing ethnography and RCT closer resulted in showing the positive impact of mixing these methods for this kind of evaluative research.

Narrare i gruppi, 2019

Gli studi randomizzati controllati (RCT) sono considerati come il principale strumento per la val... more Gli studi randomizzati controllati (RCT) sono considerati come il principale strumento per la valutazione delle iniziative d’intervento nella prima infanzia. Tuttavia, sebbene progettati per verificare se tale intervento sia stato efficace o meno, non ne illustrano affatto i meccanismi interni. Metodologicamente, in una posizione migliore si trova invece l’etnografia, in particolare per l’osservazione, nel lungo periodo, delle relazioni tra gli attori coinvolti e il processo di realizzazione del programma. Preparing for Life (PFL) è una delle poche iniziative d’intervento precoce che sia stata studiata con una combinazione di entrambe le metodologie. Tale combinazione ha dimostrato l’importanza della cosiddetta “buona relazione”. In questo articolo si mostra invece come il “modello logico” non rifletta una comprensione del meccanismo di intervento a causa di una valutazione insufficiente del significato di “buona relazione” per come viene concettualizzato dagli utenti e dagli operatori.

Narrare i gruppi, 2019

Early intervention (EI) programs face severe and often condemnatory critique. Some common critici... more Early intervention (EI) programs face severe and often condemnatory critique. Some common criticisms arising within the social science literature concern the burden of moral blame that EI programs supposedly place upon parents; the use of inaccurate or misleading scientific ‘evidence’; and the absorption of children from minority or peripheral backgrounds into the dominant culture. These criticisms might be unwarranted and must be questioned. In this paper, I draw from ethnographic research conducted with ‘Preparing For Life’ (PFL), an EI program operating in Darndale, Ireland. Research with this population provides ways of responding to criticisms frequently levelled at EI. In defending this argument, I propose approaching the debate about EI from at ethical rather than a political perspective.

Writing ethnography is a creative experience. It produces outputs and, more importantly, it leave... more Writing ethnography is a creative experience. It produces outputs and, more importantly, it leaves traces. However, such creativity is of a particular kind, for it is mutually poietic. Objects are subjects, and the practice of fieldwork makes and re-makes subjects in unexpected and indecipherable ways. From this perspective, therefore, understanding the
other, knowing the world and being ethically engaged with both appear ephemeral and, as a consequence, fundamentally unsubstantial. It is as if ethnography initiated a set of possibilities while at the same time incorporating these as impossibilities. In this sense I
take ethnography to be utopian because its aims are inherently unattainable: looking at the world through the eyes of the other, pretending to do so without hijacking the other’s perspective and establishing an ethical relationship of mutuality and fairness is always
impossible in the concrete, everyday practice of ethnographers. In this article, I intend to explore this utopian character throughout the examination of three themes: the unattainable perfection of inter-subjectivity, the unattainable perfection of epistemology in the social sciences, and the unattainable perfection of the ethic of fieldwork.

Island Studies Journal, 2023

The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 2022

Pacific Perspectives, 2021

I Kwara'ae di Honiara Migrazione e buona vita alle Isole Salomone, 2019

La prefazione è stata scritta da David Graeber in risposta alla critica della sua teoria del valore contenuta nelle conclusioni della monografia.

Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies, 2019

DADA, 2020

Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 2017

Maggio, R. 2018. 'According to Kastom and According to Law': 'Good Life' and 'Good Death' in Gilbert Camp, Solomon Islands. In Gregory & Altman (eds.) The quest for the good life , 2018

Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology

Special Issue: Descent from Israel: Jewish Identities in the Pacific, Past and Present, Nov 2015

Economic Anthropology, 2017

Please download the PDF to read the Abstract.

People and cultures of Oceania, 2017

DADA, 2018

MAT, 2017

Narrare i gruppi

Narrare i gruppi, 2019

I have already given different versions of this presentation in the past. That reflects the evolu... more I have already given different versions of this presentation in the past. That reflects the evolution of my thinking about issues of sorcery, money, and inequalities in Melanesia. But also, it suggests the multiple directions that a case study can take. At the British Museum, I was mostly focusing on the economic aspect of compensation following a sorcery accusation. At the University of Manchester, the focus was on the moral power of hybrid courts in charge of solving a case of sorcery accusation. At the University of Kobe, Japan, the focus shifted to the relationship between morality and economy. Finally, at the Centre de Recherché et Documentation sur l’Océanie, in Marseille, I was, rather unsuccessfully I should say, trying to establish a connection between the substance of value among the Kwara’ae and the substance as conceptualized in the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. This presentation is about the relationship between sorcery attacks and inequality in Melanesia. I argue that sorcery attacks should be interpreted as indigenous mechanisms intended to contrast processes of rising inequality.

In this lecture I used the analysis of a case of sorcery accusation to inform a more general disc... more In this lecture I used the analysis of a case of sorcery accusation to inform a more general discussion about value. I discuss the possibility of a substantial approach to morality, and the positive contribution this might have on the current debate on a non-dualist perspective on Kastom.

Land is one of the most talked about topics among residents of illegal settlements in Honiara tod... more Land is one of the most talked about topics among residents of illegal settlements in Honiara today. They talk about land because it is on land that they live, but they currently do note feel secure, because land in Honiara nowadays is a sort of centrifugal hotspot of many tensions. So, the first reason why I decided to concentrate on land is that land is a hot topic in the capital city of Solomon Islands. It was hot before my arrival, it was hot during my fieldwork, and it is hot now, as we will see.

The second reason is that land in Honiara is an extremely fertile research topic for the anthropological study of value. To anticipate the argument that I will develop in the lecture different 'so to say' stakeholders value land in different ways, and unless such differences are understood in depth, in the nitty-gritty details of daily tensions and negotiations, it will be extremely difficult for these stakeholders to reach their objectives. In particular, the indigenous landowners in Guadalcanal want to make money out of their land, the state wants to implement development projects on the land, and the people of Gilbert Camp want to put down roots in the land without the constant concern of being eradicated.

Disentangling and understanding these different perspectives on land is possible, but first we must go through what I called "the 7 layers of confusion on the issue of land". The reason why I chose the term confusion is that the term "konfius", the Solomon Islands Pidgin term "konfius" was used by one of the Gilbert Camp settlers during a meeting with government officials. The people who attended this meeting could not see the issue of land clearly, and they were seeking answers to at least seven crucial questions. In this lecture, I go through these seven key questions and attempt to understand how we can possibly give them an answer, or at least clarify the issue of land.

In Gilbert Camp, an illegal settlement situated on the outskirts of Honiara, Solomon Islands, the... more In Gilbert Camp, an illegal settlement situated on the outskirts of Honiara, Solomon Islands, the quest for the good life is complicated by many daily challenges: the paucity of fiscal resources; the incompatibility between the resident’s market-based social lives and the realization of the values of relatedness; the precarious security of land tenure; and many more. Negotiating these values causes tensions among the members of this community. Daily tensions can escalate in actual disputes, with the potential explosion of violence and consequent blood feuds. Thus, some sort of arbitration becomes necessary. Given the absence of state-based systems of customary dispute resolution and enforcement of customary norms, the people of Gilbert Camp set up their own ways of dealing with wrongdoings and implementation.
This paper deals with a meeting organised to solve a dispute that emerged following the accusation of a sorcery attack. The meeting was presided over by independent local headmen and three police officers. They established that no murder had taken place, in the legal sense of the term, and that the accusation had its origins in a sisterly dispute about residential land. Nevertheless, compensations had to be paid. The collaboration between the police staff and the “local chiefs” was fundamental to establish who was to pay it, how, and how much, but especially why and to what effect. This paper investigates these aspects in order to illustrate how the people of Gilbert Camp rearrange social relationship following a relational breakdown, how they seek reparation, and protect their moral values against the ill side-effects of land commodification.

Verso la metà del novembre 2011, ho osservato un rituale di scambio di doni uguali nella chiesa a... more Verso la metà del novembre 2011, ho osservato un rituale di scambio di doni uguali nella chiesa anglicana di Gilbert Camp, un insediamento situato alla periferia di Honiara, capitale delle Isole Salomone. Trentasei donne hanno scambiato trentasei regali, di uguale tipo e costo, in un totale di 18 scambi. "Che senso ha scambiarsi 160 dollari (salomonesi) di tazze con 160 dollari di tazze?" mi sono chiesto. Ho capito che era possibile interpretare la logica di questo scambio analizzando il modo in cui gli abitanti di Gilbert Camp bilanciano le priorità economiche e morali, e come si confrontano con i dilemmi che emergono dalle incompatibilità valoriali che sorgono, per esempio, tra l'imperativo di essere 'buoni' i membri della comunità e la 'necessità' di acquistare beni utili. Il Sikret Fren è quindi espressione di una creatività culturale attraverso la quale affrontare molteplici oneri economici mantenendo al tempo stesso 'buone' relazioni con le reti di parentela.

Ringraziamenti
Questa presentazione, si è tenuta il giorno 16 Gennaio 2015 all'Università di Roma La Sapienza, nel corso della conferenza "Ricerche d'Oceania: Prospettive dall'Italia", organizzata da Matteo Aria e Anna Iuso, e con il sostegno del gruppo di ricerca "Pacificamente".

La mia ricerca alle Isole Salomone è stata possibile grazie al sostegno finanziario del progetto di ricerca intitolato "The Domestic Moral Economy: uno studio etnografico del valore nella Regione Asia-Pacifico" (finanziato da un grant ESRC).

Al saggio su cui si basa questo intervento è stato assegnato il Premio Maurice Hocart 2013 dal Royal Anthropological Institute.

In the middle of November 2011 I observed a puzzling ritual in the Anglican church of Gilbert Cam... more In the middle of November 2011 I observed a puzzling ritual in the Anglican church of Gilbert Camp, a settlement situated on the outskirts of Honiara, capital city of Solomon Islands. Thirty-six women exchanged thirty-six gifts, equal in kind and monetary value, in a total of 18 exchanges. “What is the point of exchanging SBD 160ofcupswithSBD160 of cups with SBD 160ofcupswithSBD160 of cups?” I asked myself. I inquired, and observed that it was possible to explore the logic of this ritual exchange by looking at how the economic and moral priorities of Solomon Islanders intersect in their everyday lives, how they are confronted by dilemmas emerging from concrete incompatibilities between the imperative of being ‘good’ community members and the ‘necessity’ to budget, and how they can appeal to existing institutions to generate possible solutions. I thus realized that Sikret Fren is a ritual that could help us to understand the ways in which Solomon Islanders cope with the multiple economic liabilities resulting from life-cycle rituals, their relationships with kinship networks, religious institutions, community living, the market and the State.

Acknowledgements
My research was possible thanks to the financial support of the ESRC-funded research project entitled "The Domestic Moral Economy: An Ethnographic Study of Value in the Asia-Pacific Region".
The essay on which this talk is based was awarded the Maurice Hobart Essay Prize 2013 by the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Home Visiting always takes place in highly specific contexts. Culture can deeply influence the be... more Home Visiting always takes place in highly specific contexts. Culture can deeply influence the behaviours, attitudes, and reactions of parents who are enrolled in early intervention programmes. In the past few years, a systematic examination of the participants’ perspectives encouraged scholars to develop new methods of assessing the developmental and health outcomes of these initiatives. Given their highly contextual and culturally specific character, ethnographic methods have become increasingly popular in this endeavour.

Rather than drawing exclusively on external measurements to evaluate and act upon the individual situations of parents and children, an approach based on qualitative methods seemed to yield the kind of insights that can inform a more case-to-case type of intervention. For example, in rural Australia, using culturally competent care workers has been found to “deliver better developmental outcomes for children and improve maternal health and family functioning”. However, since communities in urban contexts seldom share a single culture, and their members are often very numerous, ethnographic methods might be difficult to use and ultimately inefficient.

In this paper, I propose to reflect upon the combination of ethnographic and statistical methods to understand the influence of multiple cultures of motherhood in the context of HV programmes. My aim is to illustrate the potentials and the limits of statistical and ethnographic methods for the purpose of imagining early intervention initiatives that are both more effective and ethical.

Preparing For Life (PFL) is a community-led initiative (funded by the Irish Department of Childre... more Preparing For Life (PFL) is a community-led initiative (funded by the Irish Department of Children and Youth Affairs and The Atlantic Philanthropies) that seeks to improve the lives of children in Dublin 5 and 17. It provides local families with a set of early intervention services ranging from antenatal care to home visiting, covering the children’s first five years of life. In this paper, I concentrate on the Home Visiting Programme, in which mentors help families with parenting, child development, and school readiness.

The PFL Evaluation Team at the UCD Geary Institute for Public Policy reported that the initiative is having a moderately positive impact. Interestingly, it appears that PFL is delivering better results if compared with home visiting programmes in other places and times. However, 35% of families dropped out of the study due to attrition or disengagement. Why are these families responding in this way? How do they understand the initiative? How does their ideal of a ‘good’ mother interact with the values inspiring the PFL programme, its managers, and mentors?

My aim in this paper is to illustrate how an ethnographic approach can illuminate the response of these families. This early intervention programme, though intended to improve the life of their children, can be perceived in different and unexpected ways. I argue that important insights can be collected with a focus on how parenting values are concretised and negotiated in the everyday interaction between family members, as well as at the interface between mothers and mentors.

In the middle of November 2011 I observed a puzzling ritual in the Anglican church of Gilbert Cam... more In the middle of November 2011 I observed a puzzling ritual in the Anglican church of Gilbert Camp, a settlement situated at the outskirts of Honiara, capital city of Solomon Islands. Thirty-six women exchanged thirty-six gifts, equal in kind and monetary value, in a total of eighteen exchanges. "What is the point of exchanging SBD 160ofcupswithSBD160 of cups with SBD 160ofcupswithSBD160 of cups?" I asked myself. I inquired, and observed that it was possible to explore the logic of this ritual exchange by looking at how the economic and moral priorities of Solomon Islanders intersect in their everyday lives, how they are confronted by dilemmas emerging from concrete incompatibilities between the imperative of being "good" community members and the "necessity" to budget, and how they can appeal to existing institutions to generate possible solutions. I thus realized that Sikret Fren is a ritual that could help us to understand the ways in which Solomon Islanders cope with the multiple economic liabilities resulting from life-cycle rituals, their relationships with kinship networks, religious institutions, community living, the market and the State.

Jack died during sleep in June 2011. He was staying at the house of Ethel in Gilbert Camp at the ... more Jack died during sleep in June 2011. He was staying at the house of Ethel in Gilbert Camp at the time, and had just returned from Western Province. About one year later, in October 2012, Rhoda told Ethel that it was her own sister Jane who had killed Jack with sorcery. Ethel reported all this to Jack's brother, George, who, outraged, accused Jane and her husband Hugh of murder. A meeting was subsequently held and details of the case presented to three local chiefs and three policemen. They understood that Rhoda gossiped about her sister in order to attack her because of a conflict the two had over a piece of land. Because the name of Jack had been used to make up the gossip, and the gossip resulted in a threat to the life of Hugh and George, then compensation had to be paid to both men. This dispute settlement meeting was intended to resort peace and harmony in the settlement and was successful to the extent that George and Hugh were satisfied with their compensation. However, the root cause of the problem, the tension between the two sisters, remained unresolved. This case is a classic example of sorcery accusation, in that it stemmed out of a subterraneous conflict that generated resentment, gossip, and rumour, and required a meeting to settle the dispute. The features of this case can be compared to those of many other cases described in anthropological studies of sorcery. Actually, this case is so ordinary that its features fit perfectly into the general model developed by Stewart and Strathern (2004). Therefore, it can be useful to raise the general question of wrongdoing, how it is to be dealt with and what compensation can repair it. However, rather than answering this question in general, my concern here is with the culturally specific way wrongdoing is perceived, dealt with, and repaired in Gilbert Camp. I am interested in understanding how the policemen and the chiefs cooperate in order to resolve this case in a way that they perceive to be successful. Also, I would like to follow their reasoning about acts that they perceive as morally wrong in order to understand what are the values that they believe should govern their community. Indeed, the analysis of the causes, processes, and consequences of disputes like this are extremely useful for identifying morally problematic acts and the relative value people give to them.

The Domestic Moral Economy (DME) is the perspective that I am using to carry out ethnographic res... more The Domestic Moral Economy (DME) is the perspective that I am using to carry out ethnographic research among Pentecostal Kwara'ae people in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Kwara'ae people have a strong morality, especially as far as reciprocity is concerned, and so do Pentecostal believers. In Honiara, a place inhabited by valuers from different ethno-linguistic and religious backgrounds, Pentecostal Kwara'ae interact and negotiate with them the priorities of their everyday life. I have therefore decided to focus my fieldwork observations on these groups and in this context, in order to collect data that is informative to the aims of the DME project. This synergy has generated a prolific collection of anthropological insights. In this fieldwork report, I present three small studies. They will serve the double purpose of providing some interesting examples to consider new notions of reciprocity, and explaining how the DME perspective helped me to collect them. As I am going to return to my current fieldwork site at the end of this workshop, this report is mainly intended to call for suggestions from experienced researchers, regarding both possible ways of improving my application of the methodology and inspiring my interpretation of the collected data.

How does the interplay between photography and writing helps us thinking about contemporary anthr... more How does the interplay between photography and writing helps us thinking about contemporary anthropological attempts to representation? In this paper, I argue that a preoccupation with this state of affairs is implicit in a recent photo exhibition organized at the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI). More, I argue that these photos "represent a critique of the intellectual and scientific environment and framework of beliefs in which they were produced" (Pink, 2007: 68). This exhibition epitomises contemporary preoccupations of anthropologists concerned with finding a balance among multiple and often conflicting representational choices in order to communicate the complexities of their profession and the diversity of human cultures. This analysis of the preoccupations, critique, and re-presentation that are enacted in this exhibition resonates with a broader debate, recently addressed in a series of ESRC workshops, concerning the production of anthropological knowledge, the means and media of our epistemology, and the overall mission of anthropologists.

There is a difference between singing a love song and singing because you are in love". This is h... more There is a difference between singing a love song and singing because you are in love". This is how a Malaitan man explained why he decided to leave his previous Christian denomination to join one of the Pentecostal churches that have been mushrooming in the Solomon Islands over the past four decades. In this maxim I read the conjunction of religious beliefs and sensorial motifs that can help to explain numerous aspects of conversion and adherence to, and participation in, these new charismatic denominations. Honiara, the site of my fieldwork, is a context in which the culture of Kwara'ae labor migrants is subject to rapid change. Their way of being Christian is altering too, and the growing range of possible religious experiences constitutes an opportunity for anthropologists to look into what Pacific islanders seek, feel and value when they practice a form of religiosity. The spectacular phenomenology of Pentecostal churches provides a set of concrete and observable data that can help to interrogate these issues. In this paper, my aim is to describe how emotions and sensations are keys to understanding the transactional character of Kwara'ae religious experience in Pentecostal churches. Furthermore, I will claim that it is not possible to appreciate the meaning of conversion to Pentecostal ethno-theologies without an understanding of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as a rite of passage fundamentally constituted by sensations, emotions, and the absorption of the senses.

Jack died during sleep in June 2011. He was staying at the house of Ethel in Gilbert Camp, at the... more Jack died during sleep in June 2011. He was staying at the house of Ethel in Gilbert Camp, at the outskirts of Honiara, capital city of Solomon Islands. About one year later, in October 2012, Rhoda told Ethel that it was her own sister Jane who had killed Jack with sorcery. Ethel reported all this to Jack's brother, George, who, outraged, accused Jane and her husband Hugh of murder. A meeting was subsequently held and details of the case presented to three local chiefs and three policemen. They understood that Rhoda gossiped about her sister in order to attack her because of a conflict the two sisters had over a piece of land in Gilbert Camp. Because the name of Jack had been used to make up the gossip, and the gossip resulted in a threat to the life of Hugh and George, then compensation had to be paid to both men. This dispute settlement meeting was intended to resort peace and harmony in the settlement and was successful to the extent that Jack's brother and Hugh were satisfied with their compensation. However, the root cause of the problem, the tension between the two sisters, remained unresolved.

SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks, 2024

The Australian Journal of Anthropology

Anthropological Considerations of Production, Exchange, Vending and Tourism

Abstract Purpose This chapter contributes to drawing Melanesian ethnography out of the exoticizin... more Abstract Purpose This chapter contributes to drawing Melanesian ethnography out of the exoticizing interest for gift exchange and demand-sharing. Furthermore, it provides an analytical perspective from which it is possible to conceptualize the manipulation of gift and commodity logics as mutually compatible frameworks. Rather than seeing them as contradictory, this perspective enables the theorization of shared calculative agencies that are becoming increasingly common in contemporary Melanesia. Methodology/approach The chapter draws on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Gilbert Camp, a peri-urban settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, Solomon Islands with a focus on the domestic moral economy of its inhabitants. Findings The people of Gilbert Camp are confronting a difficult economic and moral dilemma. On the one hand, they are at constant risk of financial failure because of their general conditions of scarcity. On the other, they face the prospect of disrupting some of their much-valued social relationships because such scarcity prevents them from fulfilling their cultural obligations. In order to avoid both risks, they make use of their financial competence and cultural creativity to set up strategies that save them money and preserve these relationships. Situated at the interface between kinship and market values, these strategies contribute to achieving the kind of ‘good’ life that they see as the correct balance between financial prosperity and morality. Originality/value Current negotiations over the meaning of buying, selling and taking are changing the values of contemporary sociality in Honiara, Port Vila, and other Melanesian cities. Tradestores simultaneously supply households with food and money, create a sense of sharing, and limit the demand-sharing and the taking of wantoks. Hence they create the conditions for the resolution of tensions over the incompatibility of values of kinship and market that confront the inhabitants of Melanesian cities. Household tradestores thus constitute a major site of these negotiations, and they provide a unique vantage point from which to look at the moral and economic processes that are leading to the future identity of urban Melanesia.

DADA Rivista di Antropologia post-globale, 2018

The Kwara'ae people of Gilbert Camp, an unauthorized settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, ... more The Kwara'ae people of Gilbert Camp, an unauthorized settlement on the outskirts of Honiara, Solomon Islands, exchange gifts of food that circulate within networks extending up to their island of origin, Malaita. In this article, I draw a few analytical connections between the data collected during 13 months of fieldwork conducted between Malaita and Guadalcanal, and the existing literature on urban Melanesia. The result is a methodological and theoretical blurring of rural-urban oppositions that otherwise are so prominent in some ethnographies of urban Melanesia, as much as in the public discourse in Solomon Islands and elsewhere. Ethnographies of Solomon Islands and other areas of Melanesia rarely elaborate on such nuances and even less often the blurring of spatial oppositions is demonstrated on the basis of ethnographic data. This kind of data is provided in three tables and two figures included in the article, in order to contribute to shifting the focus of urban ethnograph...

Four layers of confusion obfuscate the issue of land in Gilbert Camp. First, residents ignore the... more Four layers of confusion obfuscate the issue of land in Gilbert Camp. First, residents ignore the intended representative of their residence rights. Second, they are confused regarding the “right” way to access land. Third, they do not know who the “real landowner” is. Fourth, the land boundary has changed continually since the foundation of Honiara. In this article, I try to clarify the confusing issue of land by looking at it from 3 perspectives: (1) The history of land policy in Solomon Islands reveals a long-standing neglect of the indigenous point of view regarding land; (2) ethnographic approaches illustrate how people react to sucha dismissive attitude; and (3) the contemporary preference for patriliny among government officials exemplifies the tendency toward a form of “indigenous essentialism” in which the interests of policymakers and landowners converge. This article demonstrates that the issue of land is a legacy from the past that bears major consequences for the future...

Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, 2014

AbstractThese research notes concern what anthropologists currently do, and can do, with stories.... more AbstractThese research notes concern what anthropologists currently do, and can do, with stories. Although pleas for narrative have become increasingly widespread in contemporary anthropology, an anthropologist of storytelling cannot but recognise that all anthropological production is to a certain extent a story. A question ensues: what kind of story is an ethnography? These research notes propose an answer by providing, first, a working definition of story tailored to this specific purpose. Secondly, they propound a brief illustration of the three main thematic interests of the anthropology of storytelling: the relational dynamics between the people involved in the storytelling situation; the content of the story, and the storytelling techniques. Thirdly, these aspects are examined in order to claim that an anthropology of storytelling among contemporary anthropologists is a necessary condition to respond concretely to the above-mentioned plea for narrative.KeywordsAnthropology, s...

Narrare i Gruppi, 2018

Early intervention in child development has become co-existent with program evaluation by means o... more Early intervention in child development has become co-existent with program evaluation by means of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Although the polarized debate between detractors and promoters of quantitative methods is fading as the idea of interdisciplinarity gains programmatic traction, RCTs are still considered the “gold standard.” The application of mixed methods remains limited in evaluation of program effectiveness. In this article I propose three possible forms of integration between ethnography and RCT in the field of early intervention in child development. I argue that such an integration is beneficial for evaluation research and, thus, for the delivery of better early intervention services.

Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, 2016

Introduction Writing ethnography is a creative experience. It produces outputs and, more importan... more Introduction Writing ethnography is a creative experience. It produces outputs and, more importantly, it leaves traces. However, such creativity is of a particular kind, for it is mutually poietic. Objects are subjects, and the practice of fieldwork makes and re-makes subjects in unexpected and indecipherable ways. From this perspective, therefore, understanding the other, knowing the world and being ethically engaged with both appear ephemeral and, as a consequence, fundamentally unsubstantial. It is as if ethnography initiated a set of possibilities while at the same time incorporating these as impossibilities. In this sense I take ethnography to be utopian because its aims are inherently unattainable: looking at the world through the eyes of the other, pretending to do so without hijacking the other’s perspective and establishing an ethical relationship of mutuality and fairness is always impossible in the concrete, everyday practice of ethnographers. In this article, I intend to...

Narrare i Gruppi, 2019

Plate 3.4 Two members of the Mothers' Union exchanging cups and plates .

Journal of Comparative Research in Anthropology and Sociology, 2014

IntroductionCall for papers, March 2014"To what extent is a sense of beauty stimulated throu... more IntroductionCall for papers, March 2014"To what extent is a sense of beauty stimulated through rich description and capturing the imagination? Insights are lost through an author's inability to captivate their audience. Movements gain momentum through leaders' ability to inspire action. Religions gain power through orators' depiction of glorious enlightenment. The sensuous frisson that accompanies a good tale has a resonant and mobilizing force.Working with creativity as a strategic response to "dealing with the unknown, the uncertain in our lives" (Borofsky 2001:69) allows for everyday creativity but also for significant moments. "Yet there is a sense in which artistic creation, rooted as it may be in the negotiated and partial practices of "flow" in everyday life, also achieves itself by standing out from that background of fluid improvisation of forms and becoming a foreground that crystallises into a new shape" (Strathern and Stewar...

Medicine Anthropology Theory, 2020

Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies, 2019

World Futures, 2019

Randomized Controlled Trials are considered the "gold standard" in the evaluation of early childh... more Randomized Controlled Trials are considered the "gold standard" in the evaluation of early childhood intervention (ECI) initiatives. These trials, however, do not illustrate the internal mechanisms of the intervention. Ethnography is better positioned to observe the long-term, intimate relationships among the actors involved and the process of program delivery. Preparing for Life is one of the few ECI initiatives to be studied with a combination of both methodologies. In so doing and looking ethnographically at the "logical model" illustrates how it does not reflect the "good relationship," which is better explained with a blend of relational theories.

The Quest for the Good Life in Precarious Times: Ethnographic Perspectives on the Domestic Moral Economy, 2018

Short Film Studies, 2017

Paul and Kaya journey through three dimensions of reciprocity: the World, the pub and their ‘worl... more Paul and Kaya journey through three dimensions of reciprocity: the World, the pub and their ‘world’. The unmaking of their relationship suggests an underlying confrontation between incompatible gendered values. This might be interpreted as a reflection of current anthropological changes in Austria, particularly in the meaning of masculinity and femininity.