History as Sacrifice: The Polynesian Iconoclasm

ABSTRACT The Polynesian iconoclasm comprised a series of destructive episodes in which god‐images were rendered powerless and temples and associated structures were successively burned or torn down in Eastern Polynesia. Beginning in Tahiti and neighbouring Mo'orea in 1815, it spread rapidly to other Society Islands, the Austral Islands and the Southern Cook Islands. In this article I suggest that the willingness of Polynesian leaders to follow Tahitian precedence in destroying or unwrapping their god images can be partially explained by the fact that they saw themselves as participants in a large‐scale sacrifice, the common objective of which was the acquisition of greater mana and the consequent revitalisation of their societies. In making this argument I engage with anthropological theories that address relationships between sacrifice and historical transformation. I conclude by proposing that the Polynesian iconoclasm was a form of rituopraxis comprising regionally specific improvisations upon a general ritual schema.     

The Tectonics of Power: the Hawaiian Iconoclasm and its Aftermath

ABSTRACT An anthropology of architecture has much to gain by exploring, in a range of cultural contexts, the tectonic dimension of power identified, but left largely undeveloped, by Foucault. When walls actively plunge into fields of social relations they include and exclude, divide and join, muffle, silence, conceal, contain, confine and visually impress, sometimes in radically new ways. These ideas are pursued in relation to a dramatic series of events here termed ‘the Hawaiian iconoclasm’. A tectonic shift from temples and men's eating‐houses to royal residences and family eating‐houses is shown to have been integral to a transformation of chiefly power in 19th century Hawaii.     

The power of belief: religious freedom in Australian parliamentary debates on same-sex marriage

ABSTRACT

More than merely a theme of the Australian parliamentary debates on the bill to legalise same-sex marriage, ‘religious freedom’ appeared in the bill’s very title. This paper explores why and how this happened using a corpus-assisted analysis of the 663 parliamentary speeches made during the marriage legislation debates from 2004 to 2017. The analysis demonstrates that by 2017, the idea that marriage equality was a profound threat to religious freedom was well entrenched in the parliamentary discourse. The study finds that the potential offence of religious sensibilities came to be regarded by politicians as more significant than ongoing discrimination, thereby granting tremendous social power to religious institutions to practise discrimination in the face of changing values in society.     

Digitally Mediated Iconoclasm: the Islamic State and the war on cultural heritage

This paper puts forward the new analytical framework of ‘Digitally Mediated Iconoclasm’ (DMI) to analyse and interpret iconoclastic acts that are experienced through the propaganda (videos, social media, photographs, and other media) that the actor perpetrating the destruction makes available in global information networks for its consumption, duplication, and distribution. DMI captures three stages of the destruction (before, during and after the event) as both evidence of that destruction and as a perdurable digital archive. To demonstrate the relevance of DMI, we focus on an analysis of the videos and photographs depicting heritage destruction at pre-monotheistic sites targeted by the Islamic State (IS), such as Palmyra in Syria, the Mosul Cultural Museum, Nineveh and Nimrud in Iraq. The analysis focuses on the three stages that DMI comprises, showing the different photographic and audio-visual production techniques that the IS uses to enhance the tension that is built up leading to the destruction of cultural heritage while allocating material and human resources to produce digital propaganda. This analysis demonstrates how the analytical framework of DMI can be used to advance important work in heritage and media studies.     

Island dreaming: the contemplation of Polynesian paradise

Images of islands, especially in Polynesia, critically of Tahiti, emerged and evolved in the aftermath of island encounters with outsiders, many of whom were male. Visions of utopia dominated discourse, in different phases, as distance and smallness enhanced enchantment, yet remained centred of Tahiti, after subsequent encounters with diverse groups. Perceptions of dystopia and the ‘ignoble savage’, and the need for redemption from outside, never displaced alternative notions. Islands became incorporated into distant lands in different ways, eventually in islander diasporas, yet utopia persisted in new artistic and literary forms, supplemented by photographs, postcards and stamps, film (including travelogues), popularised anthropology and geography, and eventually tourism and television. In turn islanders replenished old images and reconstructed new ones in the shift from an imperial to a remarkably similar post-colonial politics of place and people. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.     

Shia groups and Iranian religious influence in Azerbaijan: the impact of trans-boundary religious ties on national religious policy

Abstract

The Azerbaijani Government’s struggle against external influence from Iran has played a significant role in consolidating its secular self-identification since independence in 1991. Though strong, direct Iranian influence on Azerbaijani Shia groups belongs to the past, its effects are sustained. This article examines the religious transborder flows from Iran to Azerbaijan and their impact on Azerbaijani domestic religious policy. The analysis includes religion as a factor in the debate about transnationalism and about how transnational actors challenge nation states’ exclusive authority over their territory. The analysis uses data from government documents, newspaper articles, social media, and interviews with politicians and religious actors. As a result, the article shows that the Iranian intervention in Azerbaijan has effectively initiated the building of a more specific Shia identity among a small but growing number of Shia groups. This has led to the reconfiguration both of the religious field and of Azerbaijani political secularism.     

The Birth and Growth of a Polynesian Women's Exchange Network

Based on ethnographic interviews and historical research, this article describes the birth and growth of a commoner women's exchange network in the Kingdom of Tonga during the twentieth century. The network developed during the first two decades of the century along with other late colonial institutions in Tonga that have been called ‘the compromise culture’. The exchange institution started with the inter-island exchange of women's prestige wealth within Tonga; the network soon expanded to incorporate Fijian and Samoan women's groups, to include western commodities and cash and, in the 1980s and 1990s, to involve Tongan migrants who are resident overseas. The detailed history of the women's exchange network over eight decades recounts an important slice of commoner women's life stories and memories. At the same time, as an account of a compromise institution, the history of the exchange network offers a window on the process of change in the twentieth century. It demonstrates the deeply conservative nature of seemingly radical institutional changes in Tonga, the increasing difficulties over time in trying to isolate ‘western’; and ‘traditional’; forces, and the profound transformations of Tongan life now underway.