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Chiefs Today: Traditional Pacific viding state services; and chiefs who Leadership and the Postcolonial State, act against the state as representatives edited by Geoffrey M White and of local identities and aspirations. The Lamont Lindstrom. East-West Center case studies in chapters 2 to 14 illus- Series on Contemporary Issues in Asia trate the various discourses that have and the Pacific. Stanford, ca: Stanford contributed to the persistence, trans- University Press, 1997. i s b n cloth, formation, and (re)emergence of 0–8047–2849–6; xiv + 343 pages, chiefs in the Pacific. The editors do map, notes, bibliography, index. not attempt to systematize these dis- Cloth, u s$49.50; paper u s$18.95. courses, but I do not believe that it would inflict gross conceptual violence Leadership in the Pacific Islands: on the idiosyncrasies of the various Tradition and the Future, edited by cases to characterize them as dis- Don Shuster, Peter Larmour, and courses on state, democracy, and Karin von Strokirch. Pacific Policy nationhood, discourses on Christian- Paper 30. Canberra: National Centre ity, discourses on tradition, and dis- for Development Studies, Research courses on business and development. School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Cluny Macpherson discusses the Australian National University and persistence of chiefly authority in Mangilão: Micronesian Area Research Western Sâmoa (chapter 2). He shows Center, University of Guam, 1998. how chiefs and missionaries entered i s b n 0–7315–2372–5; xi + 149 pages, a “natural alliance” to their mutual appendix, notes, bibliography. Paper gain, a collaboration that continues a$20, u s$15. up to the present. Through various transformations of constitutional Chiefs Today, a collection of essays arrangements, the chiefs have contin- edited by Geoffrey White and Lamont ued to wield considerable political Lindstrom is a welcome contribution power, formalized and legitimated by to the literature on leadership and the state. The Tongan case, described political systems in the Pacific. The by Kerry James (chapter 3), is special volume focuses on the position of in that it is the only surviving king- chiefs in the present-day Pacific Islands dom in the Pacific. The centralization and their relationships with the state. of power in the royal family, the The term chief has become the com- restricted number of appointed nobles, mon gloss for a great variety of tradi- and the state ministers have effected a tional leadership types throughout the transformation of traditional chief- Pacific region. Lindstrom and White tainship. Even though this hierarchi- define chiefs as political leaders draw- cal system enjoys great legitimacy in ing their authority and influence from Tonga, James points to problems a discourse on local tradition. They deriving from its rigidity. In chapter distinguish three main types: chiefs 4 Robert Franco compares the “pop- who represent the state, serving as its ulist and hierarchical vitality” of the statesmen (for example in Tonga); Western Samoan chiefly system with chiefs who function as the state’s inter- the continuity and stagnation of the mediaries and brokers at the local Tongan monarchy and nobility. level, exercising state control and pro- Toon van Meijl elaborates the 570 the contemporary pacific • fall 2001 urban-rural opposition within the which would have established chiefs Mâori population of New Zealand as a relevant group of actors on the (chapter 5). The rural-based tribal national scene. Even though the pro- chiefs engaged in strategies to enhance posal was finally accepted by the Con- the empowerment of Mâori tribal stitutional Convention, it was patently organizations through a process of rejected by the citizens of the Feder- political devolution. Urban groups ated States in the constitutional refer- reacted by forming pantribal organi- endum of 1991. Petersen explains this zations, which achieved political outcome by referring to the Microne- recognition as regional authorities. sian preference for a duality in the Stephanie Lawson uses the case of Fiji power system, namely between the (chapter 6) to argue forcefully that national Congress and the traditional tradition can be used as a political polities represented by the chiefs. tool to serve certain interests, in par- Laurence M Carucci shows that west- ticular those of an indigenous elite. ern intervention has consistently and She emphasizes that the present politi- increasingly empowered chiefs in the cal position of chiefs is largely a colo- Marshall Islands. Even though nial construction, but is legitimated post–World War Two American pol- on the basis of a discourse on tradi- icy officially discouraged chiefly rule, tion that opposes western values of the American presence was only the political equality and liberty, inclusion latest phase of the consolidation of the and participation. Alan Howard and power of chiefs through their control Jan Rensel move the scene to Rotuma, over the distribution of moneys com- an isolated Polynesian island in the ing from outside (damage payments, Republic of Fiji (chapter 7). Even leases, etc). though the authority basis of chiefs is Chapters 11 to 13 address eastern more fragile than in other, more strat- Melanesian cases, where the late-colo- ified Polynesian societies, the discourse nial and post-colonial states have been on chiefs plays an important role in fertile grounds for the development of local politics. chiefly claims and statuses. Lamont Chapters 8 to 10 deal with the Lindstrom discusses the situation in Micronesian region. Eve Pinsker Vanuatu, where chiefs have flourished describes the variation in the four since independence in 1980. In rela- states constituting the Federated States tion to the state, chiefs serve two main of Micronesia, namely Kosrae, Pohn- functions: they convey traditional pei, Chuuk, and Yap. At the F S M legitimacy to the state and assist it national level there is a discourse with forms of “crowd control.” In about traditional leadership defined return chiefs have received very little largely in opposition to elective or co n s t i t u t i o n a l po w e r, th o u g h th e y ha v e bureaucratic leadership, but tradi- the potential to oppose the state and tional leaders do not function as a its leaders. Geoffrey White describes group at the national level. Glenn a rather similar situation in the Solo- Petersen investigates the history of mon Islands. Here too, attempts to moves to create a Chamber of Chiefs empower chiefs have resulted in very in the Federated States of Micronesia, little change in their institutional posi- book rev iews 571 tion. White argues that the lack of referring to conceptual distinctions legal status should not obscure the derived from Lukes (three dimensions reality of a political discourse that of power), Mann (infrastructural empowers local chiefs, a discourse versus despotic power) and Foucault that is grounded in cultural continu- (sovereign versus disciplinary power). ities, and, therefore, should not be Somewhat disappointingly, the con- considered an “invented tradition.” clusion of this exercise is rather gen- The chapter written by the late eral: “Once we have seen the various Roger Keesing provides a sequel to forms power may take, it is hard to his much earlier article “Chiefs in conclude that states are generally or Chiefless Society” (Oc e a n i a 38 [19 6 9 ]: always more powerful than chiefs, 276–280), which deals with the either in relation to each other or in Kwaio in the Solomon Islands. He relation to third parties” (284). shows how paramount chiefs have Even though Lindstrom and White emerged in the colonial context. Even strongly oppose an evolutionary nar- though a conception of hereditary rative concerning chiefs, they end their leadership existed among the Kwaio, introduction on a more conclusive there is little evidence that “real” note, stating, “From today, the Pacific chiefs existed in this inland society in state’s future will dictate that of the precolonial times, unlike the situation Pacific chief” (18). In my view this in some coastal areas in the Solomon statement rightly summarizes a ten- Islands. Kathleen Adams provides the dency that can be observed in the case only case from outside the Pacific studies included in the volume. Con- region, namely the Toraja people from temporary chiefs achieve their status upland Sulawesi in Indonesia. These and power in articulation with mod- people speak an Austronesian lan- ern states and are dependent on this guage and have a strongly developed larger political context to an extent hierarchical and chiefly system. In the that does not appear to be true for the context of the modern Indonesian reverse relationship. The case studies state, which espouses a more egalitar- further testify to widely varying tra- ian rhetoric, the Toraja chiefs are jectories of chiefly authority. In some faced with increasing challenges to cases a strong chieftainship has been their authority. They fight back not able to use the opportunities provided only by invoking adat (tradition) but by modern statehood to consolidate also by referring to democracy, anti- itself. In others the colonial and post- communism, and the state ideology colonial state has provided a rich of Pancasila. breeding ground for the (re)emergence Chapter 15, by Peter Larmour, is of chiefly statuses. called “Conclusions: Chiefs and States The introduction and conclusion of Today.” It provides some useful con- the volume refrain from making gen- ceptual clarifications, for example by eralizations relating to Pacific regions, comparing chiefdoms and states, as and there are of course good reasons well as state officials and chiefs. Lar- for this in view of recent deconstruc- mour analyzes the forms of social tions of the Melanesia-Micronesia- power employed by chiefs and states, Polynesia division. Nevertheless the 572 the contemporary pacific • fall 2001 reader cannot help being impressed by western Pacific raise questions that the striking regional differences in the still need to be answered. I sympathize articulation of chieftainship and state- with the volume’s focus on discourses hood, from the well-established and about leadership, but would argue constitutionally integrated chiefly sta- that this does not necessarily mean tuses in Polynesian countries, to the that one should abstain from develop- more fragile and legally less formal- ing typologies and generalizations. ized positions in Micronesia, to the Perhaps it would be useful to invoke even more fluid variety of leadership more actively the theoretical heritage positions in Melanesian states. This of Max Weber, who in spite of some difference becomes even more striking superficial criticism in the introduc- if the comparison is extended to the tion (2) appears to inform much of New Guinea area, which is unfortu- the theoretical debate in the volume nately missing in this otherwise ethno- and has pioneered relevant conceptual graphically rich volume. In Papua distinctions (such as the one between New Guinea a discourse on chiefs is legal-bureaucratic and traditional emergent, just as in the rest of the authority, which permeates the vol- Pacific, even though it is less promi- ume) as well as the idea of the exis- nent and formalized than in eastern tence of different cultural and social Melanesia (see Richard Scaglion, spheres within a society. “Chiefly Models in Papua New Gui- These comments should not detract nea,” The Contemporary Pacific 8 from the value of this volume, which I [1996]: 1–31; R J May, (Re?)Discov- find intellectually very stimulating and ering Chiefs: Traditional Authority pertinent to contemporary political and the Restructuring of Local-Level developments in the Pacific. It is to Government in Papua New Guinea. date the best guide to the topic of Ca n b e r ra: Department of Political and chieftainship in the Pacific and it is Social Change, Australian National also relevant for more broadly com- University, 1997). Scaglion suggested parative studies of the articulation of that the hierarchical cultural heritage traditional and modern discourses of of Austronesian speaking peoples in leadership. Papua New Guinea is contained and The relevance of critical studies is opposed by the non-hierarchical cul- demonstrated by the contents of a tural models of Papuan speakers, who curious publication by the National are in the majority in that country. Centre for Development Studies, This is an argument about the impact Research School of Pacific and Asian of cultural traditions on the develop- Studies, Australian National Univer- ment of political forms, just like sity, in collaboration with the Micro- White’s suggestion (chapter 12) about nesian Area Research Center, Uni- the incompatibility of person-centered versity of Guam. Leadership in the forms of leadership common in Mela- Pacific Islands, edited by Don Shuster, nesia and the formalization required Peter Larmour, and Karin von Stro- by state bureaucracies. kirch, is curious in at least two ways. The different historical trajectories In the first place it is an example of a of chiefly systems in the eastern and Pacific chief actively promoting and book rev iews 573 participating in academic discussions provides a more critical and useful about traditional and modern leader- analysis of the long hold on political ship. Palauan Chief Roman Tmetuchl power by the Tahitian Gaston Flosse, hosted the fifth conference of the who served three terms as president Pacific Islands Political Studies Associ- of French Polynesia. Larry Gerston ation in Palau in 1996 and subsidized analyzes the United States’ Pacific pol- the publication of this booklet. The icy under the second Clinton adminis- first chapter consists of the speech tration, and Robert Rogers analyzes of Tmetuchl, in which he warmly the failure of Guam’s leaders to secure defends the important role of chiefs more political independence from the in contemporary Palauan society United States. Using the Cook Islands and points to the introduction of the as an example, Michael Goldsmith American sociopolitical system as the provides an entertaining and insight- cause of much social unrest in the ful analysis of media misrepresenta- islands. Chapter 3, by Donald Shuster, tion and overheated speculation con- describes the biography of Chief cerning Pacific Islands politics, in Tmetuchl before he was chief (later which terms like crisis and coup pre- in life he was elected as high chief dominate. Robert Churney questions of Airai). Tmetuchl has had a very a set of dichotomies deriving from impressive career as a leading Palauan “Euro-American political philosophi- politician and businessman. For many cal orientations” such as traditional years he was president of the Palau versus modern, traditional versus Congress and, among other things, democratic, and élitist versus plural- was the driving force behind Palau’s ist. While he claims that there is noth- separation movement. His political ing intrinsically and universally good clout waned when he lost in elections about either modernism or tradition, for the presidency of Palau three times his analysis of the situation in Fiji, in a row. During his years in power American Sâmoa, and Palau reads as he was instrumental in effectively a conservative and often questionable limiting the political power of chiefs. defense of traditional political forms. Now, in his old age, he appears to For example, he does not hesitate to have changed position, defending tra- defend the Fiji coup as an attempt by ditional leadership and criticizing the 350,000 indigenous Fijians to retain American presidential system. control against “the threat of 350,000 The volume is also curious because non-indigenous Indians.” He argues it is a very mixed collection of quite that “Fijians, as indigenous people, different contributions. These range deserve at least a slight hegemony in from a useful analysis of the declining their own land.” His advice to other political power of Palauan women in Pacific nations is “not to allow a Fiji- modern politics by Juliana Anastacio type of racial or ethnic-based political to a plea for heroism in Pacific leader- problem to develop if it can be pre- ship (Tim Bruce). Dirk Ballendorf vented.” He also defends élitism as describes the life of the American a system that may produce a higher William Vitarelli as a colonial hero in quality of leadership than egalitarian Micronesia and Karin von Strokirch democracy. 574 the contemporary pacific • fall 2001

Churney’s article is a rather discon- she handled the Foucaldian themes of certing example of the way discourses discipline and gender in ways that I on race and tradition can be used to could never quite make clear in my defend the rights of élites (see espe- dissertation. I was even dismayed that cially the chapter by Lawson in Chiefs her work seemed so much more thor- Today). One may safely assume that ough in several places than mine. he voices opinions that have wider While I disagree with her approach in currency in the Pacific and therefore some important ways, I also recognize warrant serious consideration and what a worthy piece of scholarship it criticism. However, it remains curious is. that this little booklet, published by a Sally Merry brings the perspective serious institution like the Australian of the cultural anthropologist to this National University, combines such social history of law in Hawai‘i. Her different intellectual products within concerns are strongly related to recent one cover without any comment or theoretical trends that stem from the explanation. writings and theories of Michel Fou- ton otto cault and Antonio Gramsci, using their ideas on hegemonic discourse as University of Aarhus the lens through which she examines * * * western law as a colonial tool. The Hawaiian Kingdom is the arena where Colonizing Hawai‘i: The Cultural European and American (haole) ideas Power of Law, by Sally Engle Merry. and practices confronted the Native Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/ Hawaiian, and Merry is clear that History. Princeton, n j: Princeton the result of the confrontation was University Press, 2000. i s b n cloth, an ambiguous blend of responses in 0–691–00931–7; paper, which Hawaiians altered their identi- 0–691–00932–5; xii + 371 pages, ties, conforming to the ideas of civi- tables, figures, photographs, appen- lization while resisting colonization dix, notes, bibliography, index. Paper, itself. us$18.95. Along the way the author presents intriguing analyses of the legal system Kânaka Maoli scholars have learned as a “site of power” wherein a differ- to be skeptical whenever a new book ent kind of discipline emerged from arrives on the shelves containing the what had been in place before contact, word Hawai‘i in its title, and written namely a discipline that was self- by someone who is not Native. I was imposed and self-correcting. While even more doubtful of Merry’s work Native participation in and acceptance and its focus on western law and its of the legal system grew, because law colonizing capacities, because that was an ideology that altered meanings was the primary theme of my own and relationships in Native society, it dissertation and the book that I am gradually came to alter and recon- finishing. struct elites who were Native and I perceived immediately that our haole while reconstituting the popu- work was not at all similar, and that lace or maka‘âinana and immigrant