Unrest among civil service employees has broken out in both Ladakh and in Tahiti, where government employees are striking to improve their retirement pay scales. While these two developments are purely coincidental, they suggest an important question: do strikes and other forceful activities, which try to compel others into taking… Continue reading…
The government of France announced last week that by 2015 its military presence in Tahiti will be cut in half, from about 1770 people to 850. The personnel will be withdrawn from a marine infantry regiment based in Arue and Taravao and from an air force facility known as Base… Continue reading…
The government of France announced last week that by 2015 its military presence in Tahiti will be cut in half, from about 1770 people to 850. The personnel will be withdrawn from a marine infantry regiment based in Arue and Taravao and from an air force facility known as Base… Continue reading…
French rule over the Tahitians is a constant reminder that remote colonial governments can be incredibly out of touch with the sensitivities of people they are governing. In an earlier era, colonial powers didn’t care about the desires of subject peoples, but now they pretend to—at least at times. Frequent… Continue reading…
Political rivalries, popular demonstrations, and disruptive electioneering tarnished the chaotic election campaigns of late 2004 and early 2005 in French Polynesia. Political events at the time were easy enough to keep track of, but the underlying political and social forces were not effectively analyzed by the press at the time…. Continue reading…
The French government medical researcher concluded his letter with an ominous statement: “the atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by France contributed to increasing the incidence of thyroid cancer in French Polynesia.” For the first time, a French government official has admitted what the Tahitians have suspected for many years—their high rate… Continue reading…
The French government medical researcher concluded his letter with an ominous statement: “the atmospheric nuclear tests conducted by France contributed to increasing the incidence of thyroid cancer in French Polynesia.” For the first time, a French government official has admitted what the Tahitians have suspected for many years—their high rate… Continue reading…
Robert Levy told his graduate student, Paula Levin, that he really disliked small talk, except when he was doing field research with the Tahitians, with whom he constantly conversed in an informal manner. Levin writes, in a recent issue of Ethos devoted to Levy, that his ability to engage people… Continue reading…
When he arrived in Tahiti, Robert Levy observed that the village of Piri “had the typical Polynesian, South Seas, soft-utopian exoticism of outrigger canoes, coral reefs, lagoons, [and] a few long haired maidens with flowers in their hair …” But the exoticism faded quickly “to mosquitoes, to boredom, to closer… Continue reading…
Robert Levy’s book Tahitians: Mind and Experience in the Society Islands was a landmark study of the emotional and cognitive experiences of the Tahitians in the early 1960s. The book is not only the basis for including the Tahitians in the Encyclopedia of Selected Peaceful Societies portion of this website,… Continue reading…
