ABSTRACT
I want primarily to explore what I see as some of the unintended consequences of the way that ASAO has developed over the last half-century. From what I know of the early days of ASAO, Mike and Alan and the other founders thought it was of great value to do good comparative ethnography, and they knew that it could not be done in an organization like the AAA. Out of their vision there grew slowly what I think of as "the long conversation" with small groups of our colleagues in multiple sessions often leading to publication in monograph form. But there is much more that has happened as this process has developed and as it continues. Some of the unintended consequences that I want to explore include the following:
There is a great deal of concern these days about the loss of biological diversity and the extinction of species as a result of human carelessness and global climate change. I think that the public is far less aware that we are also losing much of the magnificent diversity of human cultures at a similarly devastating rate. How fortunate we are that a small group of scholars began the project 50 years ago that provides so rich an account of this oceanic cultural diversity in a world where not only is cultural uniqueness under threat, but even their Island homes may disappear.
I want primarily to explore what I see as some of the unintended consequences of the way that ASAO has developed over the last half-century. From what I know of the early days of ASAO, Mike and Alan and the other founders thought it was of great value to do good comparative ethnography, and they knew that it could not be done in an organization like the AAA. Out of their vision there grew slowly what I think of as "the long conversation" with small groups of our colleagues in multiple sessions often leading to publication in monograph form. But there is much more that has happened as this process has developed and as it continues. Some of the unintended consequences that I want to explore include the following:
- Many of us have been led to return to our research communities as we were prompted to consider new questions raised by ASAO.
- The legacy of long-term research and all of the long conversation is a body of publication that surely makes the Pacific Islands one of the most well studied and well understood ethnographic areas on the planet.
There is a great deal of concern these days about the loss of biological diversity and the extinction of species as a result of human carelessness and global climate change. I think that the public is far less aware that we are also losing much of the magnificent diversity of human cultures at a similarly devastating rate. How fortunate we are that a small group of scholars began the project 50 years ago that provides so rich an account of this oceanic cultural diversity in a world where not only is cultural uniqueness under threat, but even their Island homes may disappear.
