MARSHALL SAHLINS

Marshall Sahlins contributions to Pacific studies are nothing short of monumental. Beginning with his doctoral dissertation, which was published as Social Stratification in Polynesia (1958), Sahlins has done more to set the modern theoretical agenda for social anthropology in Oceania than anyone else. In the years since Social Stratification was published, he has conducted extensive research on Fijian and Hawaiian societies and published extensively on both. His monograph on Moala (1962) was a model of social structural analysis at the time, while his subsequent ventures into symbolic anthropology, evident in such works as “The Stranger-King” (1981), “Raw Women, Cooked Men and Other ‘Great Things’ of the Fiji Islands” (1983) stimulated a renewed interest in the traditional cultures of the region--in their mythology, political and religious beliefs, and cultural logic. More than anyone Sahlins brought history back into the theoretical spotlight after it had been left to languish by social and cultural anthropologists in the region. Such works as “Other Times, Other Customs: The Anthropology of History” (1982) and “Structure and History” (1983), reprinted along with other essays on anthropology and history in Islands of History (1985), demonstrated the power of the anthropological imagination in redefining issues of Pacific history. Sahlins gave the first distinguished lecture at an ASAO meeting in Clearwater, Florida in 1979, which resulted in the first ASAO Special Publication, Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities (1981), a book that has generated lively debate about the nature of thought.

In addition to works specifically on Pacific topics, Sahlins’ contributions to anthropological theory, both in his early incarnation as a evolutionary materialist and in his later incarnation as a symbolic anthropologist, have done much to shape modern anthropology. Books such as Tribesmen (1968), Stone Age Economics (1972), and Culture and Practical Reason (1976) are major syntheses of anthropological wisdom applied to various key issues. These books, and others he has authored, make heavy use of Pacific ethnographies to illustrate his points. Marshall Sahlins is currently the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. He has been a faithful dues-paying member of ASAO for many years, during which he has received honors from numerous academies around the globe.

Alan Howard, University of Hawai'i (April 1998 Newsletter)