Description
Berghahn Books Fracturing Resemblances Identity and Mimetic Conflict in Melanesia and the West 2006 Edition by Simon Harrison
Western societies draw crucially on concepts of the 'individual' in constructing their images of the ethnic group and nation and define these in terms of difference. This study explores the implications of these constructs for Western understanding of social order and ethnic conflicts. Comparing them with the forms of cultural identity characteristic of Melanesia as they have developed since pre-colonial times, the author arrives at a surprising conclusion: he argues that these kinds of identities are more properly and adequately viewed as forms of disguised or denied resemblance, and that it is these covert commonalities that give rise to, and prolong, social divisions and conflicts between groups. Table of contents :- AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Order, Conflict and 'Difference'Chapter 1. Proprietary IdentitiesChapter 2. A Phenomenology of Trademark OwnershipChapter 3. Mimesis and IdentityChapter 4. Difference as Denied ResemblanceChapter 5. Property, Personhood and the Objectification of CultureChapter 6. Cultural Piracy and Cultural PollutionChapter 7. Cultural Boundaries, Cultural OwnershipChapter 8. Power and the Negotiation of IdentityChapter 9. Identity as a Scarce ResourceChapter 10. The Politics of AlikenessConclusion: Cultural Constructions of 'Cultural Identity'BibliographyIndex