Ethnorêma (Dec 2012)

I processi di indigenizzazione nelle pratiche culturali e linguistiche dei Kanak di Lifou

  • Anna Paini

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8/2012
pp. 35 – 49

Abstract

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The paper, based on ethnographic as well as missionary archival material, focuses on the notion of agency by analyzing the processes of indigenization through cultural and linguistic local practices as they relate to the domestication of a female dress, indicating that while the robe mission was an imported garment, and clearly part of a colonial strategy to impose a western-style sense of modesty, it has been recast locally and its meaning redressed. My concern is with the “creative pushes” at work on the part of Kanak women of Lifou vis-à-vis a very versatile garment, providing a window both on the colonial processes and on Indigenous perspectives, destabilizing the rigidity of certain positions and giving way to new articulations.