Symposium: 'From the Native's Point of View,' Revisited: On the Problem of 'Empathy' in the Pacific
Organizers: C. Jason Throop and Douglas W. Hollan

In our final symposium session we spent time discussing points of convergence and difference among the papers and we all greatly benefited from an excellent discussion of the major themes explored in the panel by our discussant Alan Rumsey. Presently, contributors are putting the finishing touches on their papers in anticipation of submitting the collection for consideration for publication as an edited volume. Themes addressed during the symposium included (1) discussing local theories of empathy in relation to concepts of personhood and emotional exchange; (2) investigating communicative norms for demonstrating, displaying, and recognizing empathy, in particular focusing on what culturally available nonverbal idioms may be utilized in communicating empathy (i.e., transactions in which material goods are exchanged between interlocutors); (3) examining the how empathy is implicated in discourses of suffering, pity, compassion and care; (4) exploring what place empathy has in those communicative contexts wherein which the establishment and maintenance of ambiguity is a valued goal and where there are prevalent strategies for concealing personal knowledge, motives, and intentions; (5) interrogating methodological concerns regarding the role of empathy in ethnographic research and practice; and finally, (6) detailing cultural articulations of empathy in connection to individual differences in personality, gender, and status.