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Tahiti beyond the postcard : power, place, and everyday life / Miriam Kahn.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Culture, place, and naturePublisher: Seattle : University of Washington Press, [2011]Copyright date: ©2011Description: 1 online resource (xv, 272 pages)Content type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9780295800950
  • 029580095X
Subject(s): Additional physical formats: Print version:: Tahiti beyond the postcard.DDC classification:
  • 996.2/11 22
LOC classification:
  • GN671.S55
  • GN671.S55 K34eb
Other classification:
  • 8,2
Online resources:
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: ch. One New Geographies in the Wake of Colonialism -- ch. Two Placentas in the Land, Bombs in the Bedrock -- ch. Three Keeping the Myth Alive -- ch. Four In the Cocoon -- ch. Five From Our Place to Their Place -- ch. Six Everyday Spaces of Resistance -- ch. Seven E Aha Atu Ra? What Will Happen?.
Summary: The "Tahiti" that most people imagine -- white-sand beaches, turquoise lagoons, and beautiful women -- is a product of 18th century European romanticism and persists today to serve as the bedrock of Tahiti's tourism industry. This postcard image, however, masks a different, less known reality. French Polynesia remains a colony of France in the 21st century and was the site of France's nuclear testing program for nearly thirty years. The dreams and desires, which the tourism industry promotes, distract from the medical nightmares and environmental destruction caused by nuclear testing. Tahitians see the burying of a bomb in their land as deeply offensive. For them, the land abounds with ancestral fertility and genealogical identity, providing them with a constant source of both physical and spiritual nourishment. The imagined and lived perspectives of Tahiti seem incompatible, yet are intricately intertwined in the political economy of French Polynesia. This book engages with questions about the ways in which power entangles itself in place-related ways. How does colonialism perpetuate and exploit these images? How can nuclear weapons testing exist in a place that is promoted as a pristine paradise? How and why is 'Tahiti' crafted by a tourism industry whose goal is to create desire? How is this imagined product embraced, ignored, or sabotaged by Tahitians? The author uses interpretive frameworks of both Tahitian and European scholars, drawing upon ethnographic details that include ancient chants, picture postcards, antinuclear protests, popular song lyrics, and the legacy of Paul Gauguin's art, to provide fresh perspectives on colonialism, tourism, imagery, and the anthropology of place.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
eBook eBook e-Library EBSCO Social Science Available
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: ch. One New Geographies in the Wake of Colonialism -- ch. Two Placentas in the Land, Bombs in the Bedrock -- ch. Three Keeping the Myth Alive -- ch. Four In the Cocoon -- ch. Five From Our Place to Their Place -- ch. Six Everyday Spaces of Resistance -- ch. Seven E Aha Atu Ra? What Will Happen?.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

The "Tahiti" that most people imagine -- white-sand beaches, turquoise lagoons, and beautiful women -- is a product of 18th century European romanticism and persists today to serve as the bedrock of Tahiti's tourism industry. This postcard image, however, masks a different, less known reality. French Polynesia remains a colony of France in the 21st century and was the site of France's nuclear testing program for nearly thirty years. The dreams and desires, which the tourism industry promotes, distract from the medical nightmares and environmental destruction caused by nuclear testing. Tahitians see the burying of a bomb in their land as deeply offensive. For them, the land abounds with ancestral fertility and genealogical identity, providing them with a constant source of both physical and spiritual nourishment. The imagined and lived perspectives of Tahiti seem incompatible, yet are intricately intertwined in the political economy of French Polynesia. This book engages with questions about the ways in which power entangles itself in place-related ways. How does colonialism perpetuate and exploit these images? How can nuclear weapons testing exist in a place that is promoted as a pristine paradise? How and why is 'Tahiti' crafted by a tourism industry whose goal is to create desire? How is this imagined product embraced, ignored, or sabotaged by Tahitians? The author uses interpretive frameworks of both Tahitian and European scholars, drawing upon ethnographic details that include ancient chants, picture postcards, antinuclear protests, popular song lyrics, and the legacy of Paul Gauguin's art, to provide fresh perspectives on colonialism, tourism, imagery, and the anthropology of place.

WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 050

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