DOCSLIB.ORG

Challenges to a House of Treasures: a Cultural History of the Fiji Museum Allison Olivia Ramsay

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Challenges to a House of Treasures: a Cultural History of the Fiji Museum Allison Olivia Ramsay CHALLENGES TO A HOUSE OF TREASURES: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE FIJI MUSEUM ALLISON OLIVIA RAMSAY CHALLENGES TO A HOUSE OF TREASURES: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE FIJI MUSEUM By Allison Olivia Ramsay A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in History Copyright © 2013 by Allison Olivia Ramsay History Discipline School of Social Sciences Faculty of Arts, Law and Education The University of the South Pacific July, 2013 Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Arley and Sharant Ramsay. i Acknowledgements The moral support of family members was well appreciated. I make special mention of my parents Arley and Sharant Ramsay and my sister Astrid Ramsay for their love and support. I am indebted to the Caribbean-Pacific Island Mobility Scheme for this scholarship to allow me the opportunity to study at the University of the South Pacific (USP). I wish to thank the staff of the USP, particularly the Department of History of the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Law and Education; the University Research and Graduate Affairs Committee and the International Office. I am especially grateful to Dr. Morgan Tuimalealiifano and Dr. Ryota Nishino for their guidance and support. I am also appreciative of the assistance given to me by Barbara Hau‘ofa. I am very thankful to the following institutions and staff for their courtesy and assistance: the Fiji Museum; the National Archives of Fiji; the main library of the USP Laucala Campus; the Pacific Heritage Hub; the Levuka Community Centre; the Department of Heritage of Culture, Ministry of Fijian Affairs, Culture, Heritage & Regional Development; the National Trust of Fiji; the Museum of Samoa and the Vanuatu Cultural Centre. I wish to especially extend my gratitude to the staff of the Fiji Museum, the Museum of Samoa, the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, the National Trust of Fiji, the Levuka Community Centre and the Pacific Heritage Hub for their participation in this study. Finally, I thank all who have contributed in any way to my completion of this thesis and I end with my greatest gratitude being extended to God. ii ABSTRACT Challenges to a House of Treasures: A Cultural History of the Fiji Museum Allison Olivia Ramsay A writing of the Fiji Museum can provide discourse on cultural identities and heritage in the South Pacific. This thesis examines the role, significance and contributions of museums in the Pacific Islands through the lens of one of the oldest of them, the Fiji Museum. The main focus is on the historical development of this museum from the early twentieth to the twenty-first century context but some reference is made to other museums/cultural centres in the selected Pacific Islands of Samoa and Vanuatu. In this historical study, the Fiji Museum is shown as initially an extension of the colonialist enterprise. The museum as a cultural practice was transported into Fiji, during the era of British colonial rule. The challenges it has faced are charted throughout its development in the colonial and postcolonial periods and make this museum a contested space. These struggles to preserve, conserve, document, promote and collect the cultural heritage of all of Fiji and protect the cultural identities of this set of islands are discussed. To unravel the complex layers of the cultural history of the Fiji Museum, empirical research strategies were employed in proposing an understanding of the fluidity of identities that were created, embraced, and contested throughout the history of this national institution. Key words: Fiji Museum, heritage, cultural identity. iii List of Abbreviations CUMAA Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology EIA Environmental Impact Assessment ICCROM International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property ICOM International Council of Museums NLTB National Land Trust Board PICTs Pacific Island Countries and Territories PIMA Pacific Islands Museum Association POAPI Preservation of Objects of Archaeological and Palaeontological Interest Act PREMO Preserving Museums Organisation SIDS Small Island Developing States SINM Solomon Islands National Museum SFU Simon Fraser University SPC Secretariat for the Pacific Community SPREP Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation VCC Vanuatu Cultural Centre iv Table of Contents CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Survey ................................................................................................................ 6 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 13 How the Thesis is Organised ............................................................................................ 16 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER TWO .............................................................................................................. 19 Theoretical Framework ..................................................................................................... 19 Pacific (Cultural) Identities ............................................................................................... 19 National Identities and Museums...................................................................................... 23 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 26 CHAPTER THREE .......................................................................................................... 28 The Nation’s Treasure House ............................................................................................ 28 The Early Years, 1904–1954 ............................................................................................. 28 Fijian Society during the World War One Era .................................................................. 33 The Fijian Society: A White Male–Dominant Space ........................................................ 36 1929 Ordinance: Museum Legislation Passed .................................................................. 40 1938, the Origins of the Fiji Society ................................................................................. 41 1940: Preservation of Objects of Archaeological and Palaeontological Significance ...... 44 Fiji Museum and the Second World War .......................................................................... 46 Museum Popular among All Races, Plan for a New Headquarters .................................. 48 Thurston Gardens, Fiji Museum’s Home: The 1955 to 1970 era ..................................... 50 Beyond Indigenous Fijians ............................................................................................... 59 Summary ........................................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER FOUR ............................................................................................................. 64 Destabilising the Ivory Tower ........................................................................................... 64 The Fiji Museum Expands ................................................................................................ 64 Oral Traditions Project ...................................................................................................... 65 The Absence of Indo-Fijians ............................................................................................. 70 A museum in western Viti Levu? ..................................................................................... 72 Beyond Suva: A museum for Levuka ............................................................................... 75 Keeping Fiji’s Cultural Material at ‘home’ ...................................................................... 77 Publications ....................................................................................................................... 79 Friends of the Fiji Museum ............................................................................................... 80 The 1987 Coups ................................................................................................................ 81 1991 Visitors Survey......................................................................................................... 82 v Galleries and Departments ................................................................................................ 85 Conserving Heritage Sites................................................................................................. 85 CHAPTER FIVE .............................................................................................................. 88 Community Engagement and Embracing Intangible Cultural Heritage ........................... 88 Pacific Islands Museum Association ................................................................................ 89 Venturing into the Community ........................................................................................ 92 Community
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Archaeology of Lapita Dispersal in Oceania
    The archaeology of Lapita dispersal in Oceania pers from the Fourth Lapita Conference, June 2000, Canberra, Australia / Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and Island Melanesia — lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present. Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics, as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for Southeast Asia and blue for the Pacific islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers, and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. List of volumes in Terra Australis Volume 1: Burrill Lake and Currarong: coastal sites in southern New South Wales. R.J. Lampert (1971) Volume 2: Ol Tumbuna: archaeological excavations in the eastern central Highlands, Papua New Guinea. J.P. White (1972) Volume 3: New Guinea Stone Age Trade: the geography and ecology of traffic in the interior. I. Hughes (1977) Volume 4: Recent Prehistory in Southeast Papua. B. Egloff (1979) Volume 5: The Great Kartan Mystery. R. Lampert (1981) Volume 6: Early Man in North Queensland: art and archeaology in the Laura area.
    [Show full text]
  • American Samoa
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Texas A&M University THE LITHICS OF AGANOA VILLAGE (AS-22-43), AMERICAN SAMOA: A TEST OF CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND SOURCING TUTUILAN TOOL-STONE A Thesis by CHRISTOPHER THOMAS CREWS Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2008 Anthropology THE LITHICS OF AGANOA VILLAGE (AS-22-43), AMERICAN SAMOA: A TEST OF CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND SOURCING TUTUILAN TOOL-STONE A Thesis by CHRISTOPHER THOMAS CREWS Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved by: Chair of Committee, Suzanne L. Eckert Committee Members, Ted Goebel Frederic Pearl Head of Department, Donny L. Hamilton May 2008 Major Subject: Anthropology iii ABSTRACT The Lithics of Aganoa Village (AS-22-43), American Samoa: A Test of Chemical Characterization and Sourcing Tutuilan Tool-Stone. (May 2008) Christopher Thomas Crews, B.A., Colorado College Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Suzanne L. Eckert The purpose of this thesis is to present the morphological and chemical analyses of the lithic assemblage recovered from Aganoa Village (AS-22-43), Tutuila Island, American Samoa. Implications were found that include the fact that Aganoa Village did not act as a lithic workshop, new types of tools that can be included in the Samoan tool kit, a possible change in subsistence strategies through time at the site, and the fact that five distinct, separate quarries were utilized at different stages through the full temporal span of residential activities at the village.
    [Show full text]
  • WIS 2020 Program March4 Update
    WOMEN IN STEM CONFERENCE EDUCATE TO EMPOWER Uplifting All Women in STEM March 5, 2020 PROGRAM SPEAKERS MARINA KARIDES Chair & Professor of Sociology, UH at Hilo Marina Karides serves as Chair and Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo. Her research and teaching interests include intersectionality and coloniality in island societies, feminisms, alternative economics, and recently, indigenous methodologies. She has published numerous articles and chapters from research conducted in island regions and has a series of publications focused on global social movements. Her forthcoming book with SUNY Press, Sappho’s Legacy? Food and Convivial Economics on a Greek Isle, address gender, ethnicity, and island economies. Karides is the PI on the NSF ADVANCE funded project “Building Relationships to Increase Diversity and Gender Equity in Hawai’i’s Two-Year College System” and co-convener of the 2020 inaugural conference of Island Feminisms. ALEXANDRA COLÓN-RODRÍGUEZ Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of California, Davis Dr. Colón-Rodríguez is a first generation Puerto Rican neuroscientist. She pursued her PhD at Michigan State University and focused on neurotoxicology. During that time her experiences as a Latina, first gen, woman in STEM motivated her to seek opportunities to encourage the next generation and she has been actively involved in outreach and SciComm activities with this purpose. Currently, Dr. Colón-Rodríguez is a postdoctoral research fellow in Dr. Rebecca Calisi Rodríguez lab in the Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior at the University of California, Davis. As part of the Calisi lab Dr. Colón-Rodríguez has a hybrid position in which she is devoting fifty percent of her time to the development of a science communication training program for faculty in collaboration with the University of California San Diego, and fifty percent of her time on research understanding how single parenting is changing the main emotional center of the brain, the amygdala, on the single parent and their offspring.
    [Show full text]
  • Is Fiji Ready for a Free Press
    VOLUME 17. No.1I/MAY, 2012 ISSN 1029-7316 Pageant scrutiny by EDWARD TAVANAVANUA and PARIJATA GURDAYAL scheduled for the panel to view and assess the contestants. Hoerder, who has experience as HE Miss World Fiji 2012 Pageant is under a Miss Hibiscus judge, said the fact that they scrutiny following a plethora of allegations, only had one meeting with the contestants including that the winner was pre-deter- T was extremely irregular. The assessment also mined well before the judging panel deliberated. was confined to their life story or experiences. Although the pageant concluded about two Blake has since confirmed in a press state- weeks ago, the Miss World Organisation has ment that no judging criteria or points system yet to add the winner of the Fiji franchise, was used to judge the contestants. Torika Watters, to the list of winners on its official “If you are asked to be a judge for Miss World, website. The organisation has yet to respond to then you should come with the mindset of hear- queries e-mailed to it last week. Extra ing genuine stories and not with the expecta- Fiji franchise director Andhy Blake refused requests tions of age, point’s tabulation,” he said. yards for an in-person interview. When asked over the phone He added that based on this fact that no judging whether Watters had been accepted into the interna- or points system was employed, any allegations of pay off tional competition, he said “it’s a surprise”. judging being rigged are false. He also declined to comment on whether the funds “I gave my own personal opin- raised from a charity ball, which was held to create ions on whoever I saw fitting for awareness on mental health, had been given to St Giles the title without influencing the Hospital.
    [Show full text]
  • The Diversity of Fijian Polities
    7 The Diversity of Fijian Polities An overall discussion of the general diversity of traditional pan-Fijian polities immediately prior to Cession in 1874 will set a wider perspective for the results of my own explorations into the origins, development, structure and leadership of the yavusa in my three field areas, and the identification of different patterning of interrelationships between yavusa. The diversity of pan-Fijian polities can be most usefully considered as a continuum from the simplest to the most complex levels of structured types of polity, with a tentative geographical distribution from simple in the west to extremely complex in the east. Obviously I am by no means the first to draw attention to the diversity of these polities and to point out that there are considerable differences in the principles of structure, ranking and leadership between the yavusa and the vanua which I have investigated and those accepted by the government as the model. G.K. Roth (1953:58–61), not unexpectedly as Deputy Secretary of Fijian Affairs under Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, tended to accord with the public views of his mentor; although he did point out that ‘The number of communities found in a federation was not the same in all parts of Fiji’. Rusiate Nayacakalou who carried out his research in 1954, observed (1978: xi) that ‘there are some variations in the traditional structure from one village to another’. Ratu Sukuna died in 1958, and it may be coincidental that thereafter researchers paid more emphasis to the differences I referred to. Isireli Lasaqa who was Secretary to Cabinet and Fijian Affairs was primarily concerned with political and other changes in the years before and after independence in 1970.
    [Show full text]
  • Researchspace@Auckland
    http://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz ResearchSpace@Auckland Copyright Statement The digital copy of this thesis is protected by the Copyright Act 1994 (New Zealand). This thesis may be consulted by you, provided you comply with the provisions of the Act and the following conditions of use: • Any use you make of these documents or images must be for research or private study purposes only, and you may not make them available to any other person. • Authors control the copyright of their thesis. You will recognise the author's right to be identified as the author of this thesis, and due acknowledgement will be made to the author where appropriate. • You will obtain the author's permission before publishing any material from their thesis. To request permissions please use the Feedback form on our webpage. http://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/feedback General copyright and disclaimer In addition to the above conditions, authors give their consent for the digital copy of their work to be used subject to the conditions specified on the Library Thesis Consent Form and Deposit Licence. CONNECTING IDENTITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH INDIGENOUS EPISTEMOLOGY: THE SOLOMONI OF FIJI ESETA MATEIVITI-TULAVU A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The University of Auckland Auckland, New Zealand 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .................................................................................................................................. vi Dedication ............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Naturalist and His 'Beautiful Islands'
    The Naturalist and his ‘Beautiful Islands’ Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific David Russell Lawrence The Naturalist and his ‘Beautiful Islands’ Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific David Russell Lawrence Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at http://press.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Lawrence, David (David Russell), author. Title: The naturalist and his ‘beautiful islands’ : Charles Morris Woodford in the Western Pacific / David Russell Lawrence. ISBN: 9781925022032 (paperback) 9781925022025 (ebook) Subjects: Woodford, C. M., 1852-1927. Great Britain. Colonial Office--Officials and employees--Biography. Ethnology--Solomon Islands. Natural history--Solomon Islands. Colonial administrators--Solomon Islands--Biography. Solomon Islands--Description and travel. Dewey Number: 577.099593 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover image: Woodford and men at Aola on return from Natalava (PMBPhoto56-021; Woodford 1890: 144). Cover design and layout by ANU Press Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2014 ANU Press Contents Acknowledgments . xi Note on the text . xiii Introduction . 1 1 . Charles Morris Woodford: Early life and education . 9 2. Pacific journeys . 25 3 . Commerce, trade and labour . 35 4 . A naturalist in the Solomon Islands . 63 5 . Liberalism, Imperialism and colonial expansion . 139 6 . The British Solomon Islands Protectorate: Colonialism without capital . 169 7 . Expansion of the Protectorate 1898–1900 .
    [Show full text]
  • Passage of Change
    PASSAGE OF CHANGE PASSAGE OF CHANGE LAW, SOCIETY AND GOVERNANCE IN THE PACIFIC edited by Anita Jowitt and Dr Tess Newton Cain Published by ANU E Press The Australian National University Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at: http://epress.anu.edu.au/passage_change _citation.html National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry Title: Passage of change : law, society and governance in the Pacific / edited by Anita Jowitt and Tess Newton Cain. ISBN: 9781921666889 (pbk.) 9781921666896 (eBook) Notes: Includes bibliographical references. Subjects: Jurisprudence--Pacific Area. Customary law--Pacific Area. Pacific Area--Politics and government. Pacific Area--Social conditions. Other Authors/Contributors: Jowitt, Anita. Cain, Tess Newton. Dewey Number: 340.5295 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design by Emily Brissenden Printed by Griffin Press This edition © 2010 ANU E Press First edition © 2003 Pandanus Books CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Table of Abbreviations viii Table of Cases x Table of International Conventions xiii Table of Legislation xiv Notes on Contributors xvii INTRODUCTION Anita Jowitt and Tess Newton-Cain 1 SECTION 1: THE CONTEXT OF CHANGE 1. Modernisation and Development in the South Pacific Vijay Naidu 7 SECTION 2: CORRUPTION 2. Corruption Robert Hughes 35 3. Governance, Legitimacy and the Rule of Law in the South Pacific Graham Hassall 51 4. The Vanuatu Ombudsman Edward R. Hill 71 SECTION 3: CUSTOMARY LAW 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Late Holocene Landscape Evolution and Land- Use Expansion In
    Late Holocene Landscape Evolution and Land­ Use Expansion in TutuilaJ American Samoa FREDERIC B. PEARL THIRTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, A STUDY OF OXYGEN-ISOTOPE RATIOS from a spe­ leothem (cave formation) in New Zealand demonstrated that a rapid temperature drop occurred in southern Polynesia in the fourteenth century. Wilson et al. (1979) proposed that the violent climatic conditions accompanying this tempera­ ture drop would not only have resulted in increased latitudinal temperature variants but would also have had catastrophic effects on agriculture. At the same time, the more violent climate would have made long-distance voyages inher­ ently more dangerous. More recently, Bridgeman (1983), based on an extensive review of previously published climatological data, proposed that climatic change may have contrib­ uted to a general collapse in Polynesian migrations after A.D. 1350. These studies have received renewed discussion since 1995 when Nunn (1995, 1998, 1999, 2000) published sea level data synchronized to climate change, proposing his own theory that changing climatic conditions had a profound regional effect on Poly­ nesian culture. A better understanding of climate-induced landscape change is necessary in or­ der to better model human response to dynamic ecosystems. Climate change may result in systematic environmental adjustlTlents in an alluvial catchment. Because archaeological sites are found within Holocene-age sediments, it is necessary to understand the late Quaternary history of the region in order to understand pre­ historic settlement patterns and the completeness of the archaeological record. In order to determine the extent to which changes in the late Holocene geo­ logical record correlate with climate and ecological changes over the same period, geoarchaeological explorations were undertaken in A'asu on the remote northern shores of Tutuila Island, American Samoa (Fig.
    [Show full text]
  • Govt Investment Brings Better Teaching Experience
    WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 6, 2019 l 16 PAGES l ISSUE 22 VOL 10 l WWW.FIJI.GOV.FJ j Fijij FocusDISCIPLINED TOP FIJIAN ENVOY TELLS SERVICES OF EDUCATION REMEMBER FALLEN 6 EMPOWERMENT SAVING 12 DAYLIGHT NOV 10, 2019 COMRADES Govt investment brings better teaching experience Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama with Nabukaluka District School students after opening the newly-built teacher’s quarters in Naitasiri. Photo: EMI KOROITANOA EDUCATION EMI KOROITANOA their own well-being, teachers can focus on The Head of Government said an unprece- maritime regions as their facilities –includ- REVOLUTIONtheir work in the classroom,” he said. dented $13.8 million has been allocated to- ing teachers’ quarters – were noticeably HE education revolution in Fiji is on Prime Minister Bainimarama, while open- wards location allowances for primary and shabbier than schools in urban areas,” PM track as the Government continues ing the newly-built teacher’s quarters at secondary teachers in remote areas. Bainimarama said. Tto invest in infrastructure to improve Nabukaluka District School in Naitasiri In the current budget cycle, Fijian Govern- “On top of that, the allowance we paid to not just learning but the teaching experi- recently, said those days of poor working ment has included early childhood educa- remote teachers was much lower than to- ence as well. conditions have been brought to an end by tion (ECE) teachers in the initiative for the day. As a result, life was made unduly dif- This as Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimara- Fijian Government. first time with an allocation of $500,000 for ficult for rural teachers and the top teaching ma opened a series of teachers’ quarters in This new energy, he said, will be felt by their location allowances.
    [Show full text]
  • Indigenous Itaukei Worldview Prepared by Dr
    Indigenous iTaukei Worldview Prepared by Dr. Tarisi Vunidilo Illustration by Cecelia Faumuina Author Dr Tarisi Vunidilo Tarisi is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, where she teaches courses on Indigenous museology and heritage management. Her current area of research is museology, repatriation and Indigenous knowledge and language revitalization. Tarisi Vunidilo is originally from Fiji. Her father, Navitalai Sorovi and mother, Mereseini Sorovi are both from the island of Kadavu, Southern Fiji. Tarisi was born and educated in Suva. Front image caption & credit Name: Drua Description: This is a model of a Fijian drua, a double hulled sailing canoe. The Fijian drua was the largest and finest ocean-going vessel which could range up to 100 feet in length. They were made by highly skilled hereditary canoe builders and other specialist’s makers for the woven sail, coconut fibre sennit rope and paddles. Credit: Commissioned and made by Alex Kennedy 2002, collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, FE011790. Link: https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/648912 Page | 2 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 4 SECTION 2: PREHISTORY OF FIJI .............................................................................................................. 5 SECTION 3: ITAUKEI SOCIAL STRUCTURE ...............................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Democratic Change in the Arab World, Past and Present
    ERIC CHANEY Harvard University Democratic Change in the Arab World, Past and Present ABSTRACT Will the Arab Spring lead to long-lasting democratic change? To explore this question, I examine the determinants of the Arab world’s demo- cratic deficit in 2010. I find that the percentage of a country’s landmass that was conquered by Arab armies following the death of the prophet Muhammad statistically accounts for this deficit. Using history as a guide, I hypothesize that this pattern reflects the long-run influence of control structures developed under Islamic empires in the premodern era and find that the available evi- dence is consistent with this interpretation. I also investigate the determinants of the recent uprisings. Taken in unison, the results cast doubt on claims that the Arab-Israeli conflict or Arab culture or Muslim theology is a systematic obstacle to democratic change in the region and point instead to the legacy of the region’s historical institutional framework. ill the Arab Spring lead to long-lasting democratic change? With WIslamist parties and candidates performing well in elections across the Arab world, many observers have begun to predict that the recent upris- ings will usher in a wave of Islamist-dominated autocracies instead of the democratic institutions many protestors initially demanded. These observ- ers often point to the political trajectories of non-Arab, Muslim-majority states such as Iran and implicitly claim that Islamist-dominated states cannot be democratic. Others note that the emergence of democratic regimes in Indonesia and Turkey demonstrate that Islamists can play a con- structive role in democratic institutions.1 One challenge for those interested in forecasting the evolution of institu- tions in the Arab world is that there is little consensus regarding the factors that led to the region’s democratic deficit before the recent uprisings.
    [Show full text]