Seminar Series: Abstract

JIF BLONG TANNA The development of leadership systems on Tanna, Vanuatu
Mark Nizette

The research for my doctoral thesis centres on the structure and evolution of leadership systems on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. In particular, I am interested to explore how these social and political systems may have adapted or otherwise responded to the expectations and demands of Western visitors to the island since it was first ‘discovered’ by Captain James Cook on his second voyage through the Pacific in 1774. Tanna has already been the subject of a number of social, historical and anthropological investigations, with researchers sometimes making comment on the unusual leadership structures found on the island. However, little work has specifically focused on the manner in which leaders operate in the villages and across the island, and even less effort has focused on how these leadership systems might have changed as the world of the Tannese extends beyond traditional regional contact into the realm of Western epistemology.