Saltwater Sociality

Katharina Schneider is Lecturer at the Institute for Ethnology at Heidelberg University. She obtained her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge.

• List of TablesA note on languagesPrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionPororan and Buka, 2004Movements: an ethnographic focusStudying movements: some methodsMovements as objectificationChapter 1. Fishing peopleAnywhere, anytime, anybodyGardening and fishingFishing methodsGoing around: opening up space and timeReturn from the seaSia and HuluChapter 2. Kin on the moveWatching, discussing and eliciting movementsMothers and childrenPinaposa gatheringsFathers, or ‘making grow’The ninjaMatrilineal kinship: a view from PororanChapter 3. Mobile placesBuka history: an overviewAncestral settlementColonial gatheringPresent-day ‘pulling’Leitana and the little thingStonesChapter 4. PinaposaMatrilineages ‘by the hair’Pinaposa relations across BukaThe Pororans on ancestral roadsOrchestrating movements, and going around in the bushMigration storiesHatsunonConclusionChapter 5. Marriage and mortuary ritesSinahanTightening a relationMortuary ritesPersons at deathObjects of forgettingBung malot: the end of mourningHahur: ‘a mark of being human’Finishing mourning on the mainlandChapter 6. Movements and kastom‘Writing down the clans’‘Straightening traditional leadership’‘Straightening the ground’A Pororan kastom eventConclusionThe argumentPororan, MelanesiaPororan, at seaGlossary: Hapororan and Tok Pisin termsAppendix A: Pororan travel routes, 2004-05Appendix B. Some fishing termsAppendix C: Melanesian Pidgin and Hapororan kin termsAppendix D: Stories and SolomonBibliographyIndex

“The evocative description and level of scholarship make Schneider’s work a fine example of current ethnography which also provides valuable detail about how ethnographers do their work. This is a highly readable book for those with an interest in the region, a fascination with relatedness, and for anthropologists interested in accessing a written account of how useful ethnographic material might be collected.” · JRAI“Schneider's ethnography is engaging, immersive, and a pleasure to read. She brings to life the everyday tensions around movement and identity that are embodied in those who are from the small island of Pororan, in which everyday concerns for food provisioning both strengthen and place stress on kinship ties with other places… The book’s structure and narrative are not molded to a predetermined argument, but are emergent through rich ethnography.” · Anthropological Forum"This engaging and beautifully written monograph…provides us with wonderful new material from a region that has received relatively little ethnographic interest, especially in the recent ‘post-conflict’ period. [Schneider’s]study is relevant to current Pacific Island studies and makes a contribution to longstanding debates about Melanesian sociality, while addressing themes such as matrilineal kinship, rank, gender and marriage and mortuary rites. Given its clarity, depth and scope: a must read for anthropology students.” · Pacific Affairs“[M]ethodologically innovative, theoretically sophisticated, ethnographically engaging, and beautifully written - what makes this book especially noteworthy is the author’s ability to bring closely observed research data into productive dialogue with general social scientific theories.” · Michael W. Scott, London School of Economics“[A] fascinating manuscript. It is clearly and straightforwardly written, adds new and important ethnographic material to the small but growing contemporary literature of Island Melanesia, and is relevant to current debates in a number of ways.” · James Leach, University of Aberdeen