15-17 December, 1994
Basel, Switzerland
CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR OCEANISTS

By J. Wassmann

From 15 to 17 December 1994, the Institute of Ethnology of the University of
Basel will host the Conference of the European Society for Oceanists (ESO). 

EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR OCEANISTS (ESO)
The new society, ESO, adresses itself to researchers with a regional interest
in Oceania. "Oceania" is defined as including the South Pacific Islands, Papua
New Guinea, Irian Jaya, Australia and New Zealand, i.e. Micronesia, Melanesia,
Polynesia and Australia. The society was established on the occasion of the
First European Colloquium on Pacific Studies, which was organized by the
Centre for Pacific Studies in Nijmegen in December 1992.
The board of ESO consists of representatives from European countries where
research in Oceania has a firmly established tradition, i.e. Scandinavia,
Great Britain, France, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain,
and Portugal.
The ESO wants to be seen as an interdisciplinary organization; membership is
open to anthropologists, linguists, historians, geographers, psychologists and
other researchers in the social sciences and humanities.
In the context of an increasingly integrated Europe (politically, economically
and scientifically) this new society is intended to enhance the intellectual
exchange and co-operation between individual researchers and between
institutions (universities, museums), both within and outside Europe. This
goal is to be achieved by publishing a newsletter, by establishing an
information network, and by organizing biennial conferences.

BASEL CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR OCEANISTS
The present conference is an outcome of the recently founded ESO, a
professional association, the purpose of which is to create closer links
between European Oceanic scholars. Its subject is designed to accommodate the
diversity of the problems faced by the scholars and the disciplines concerned
and of the geographical area covered. Its main goal is to facilitate the
emergence of a problematic specific to this region of the world.

KNOWING OCEANIA: CONSTITUTING KNOWLEDGE AND IDENTITIES 
The diversity of contemporary developments in Oceania, both global and local,
appears to raise questions which can not be answered by using segmented
concepts like gender, colonialism, exchange, politics, and modernization.
Alternatively, increasing attention has been devoted to notions of 'knowledge'
and 'identity', which, unprecise as they still are, allow for a flexibility
that may arrive at new insights into the problems posed. Through these
notions, the aim is to convey some central dimensions of the Oceanic
specificity.
Within that context, the main title of the conference, 'Knowing Oceania', is
of course intended to acknowledge that there is much that remains to be known
about Oceania, and therefore that there is indeed an extensive body of
specific knowledge pertaining to its people. As such, this is a particularly
appropriate theme for a conference of ESO. But the notion also alludes to two
further processes central to the anthropological problematic. First, 'knowing'
is an inherently active process through which Oceania has been and continues
to be constructed in its identities, both by Pacific Islanders themselves and
by outsiders. The notion of identity is here suggested as a way to bridge the
tension between conflicting forms of processes like acculturation,
appropriation or confrontation. Secondly, knowing conveys the idea that the
specifity of Oceanic knowledges permanently obliges us to re-scrutinize our
own knowledges. In that sense it also alludes to our own anthropological
methodology which determines our scientific identity. 
The general theme Knowing Oceania: Constituting Knowledge and Identities may
be developed around different aspects, including gender perspective. The Board
Members of the ESO have specified ten subthemes, each characterized by a
number of key-words. The sub-themes will be discussed in working sessions. In
addition, it is planned to invite four keynote speakers who will address the
general theme of the conference. 

PROPOSED THEMES OF WORKING SESSIONS
1. LOCAL AND IMPORTED KNOWLEDGES
Christian and Islamic fundamentalism; syncretism; indigenous use of
scientific, medical and technical knowledges; acculturation or appropriation
of exogenous forms.

2. COMMON WORLDS AND SINGLE LIVES
Communal identities; changing concepts of the person; changing ontology;
making biographies and autobiographies.

3. CULTURAL PRACTICES OF IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION AND NATION BUILDING
Democracies and aristocracies; co-consumption of imagery, goods, foodstuffs;
sport; construction of shared ideologies; pidgins and creoles; living with
diversity; hegemonic practices .

4. GENEALOGIES, LAND AND TITLES 
Kinship in local and national life; reassessing colonial law; going to court
and landmark court cases.

5. COMPETING AND CONVERGING SYSTEMS OF EXCHANGE
Migration in a historical perspective; remittance economies; subsistence
production and monetarization; urbanization; the 'village' in the city; old
and new elites.

6. ECOLOGICAL PLURALISM?
Ecologies in collision; politics of ecology; ecology and development; myth,
ritual and ecology.

7. SCRUTINIZING REGIONAL SYSTEMS 
Constructing units for comparison; perils of essentialism and the attraction
of distance; regional systems over time ('Melanesia', 'Polynesia',
PNG-'Highlands', 'kula-cultures').

8. MODELLING OCEANIA
The relevance of Oceanic models beyond Oceania; the applicability of
non-Oceanic models to Oceania (kinship, exchange, social structure, identity).

9. IDENTITY OF OBJECTS - OBJECTS OF IDENTITY
Museum-ification; Cultural Centres and the production of locality;
souvenir-culture; projecting local cultures; proliferation of objects and
performances; consumer products.

10. ETHICS AND POLITICS OF FIELDWORK
Use and exploitation of informants and anthropologists; authorship and
copyright; feedback of information; mediating between cultures; selection of
fieldsites: theoretical, personal and institutional expectations; university
politics and marginalization of Oceania; anti-anthropologism and regional
marginalization.

INVITATION
We invite papers on any of these ten sub-themes. Please let us know whether
you intend to participate and/or prepare a paper, and if so, on what subject
(please indicate the number of the sub-theme). Short abstracts of the papers
(not longer than 1/3 DIN A 4 page) are requested by September 1, 1994. A
complete collection of abstracts will be made available to all conference
participants.

Send all correspondence to: 
Dr Jrg Wassmann 
Institute of Ethnology University of Basel
Mnsterplatz 19
CH-4051 Basel
Switzerland
Tel: (41) 612612638
Fax: (41) 612665605
5-9 September, 1994
Tokyo, Japan
13th Conferenc of the International Association of Historians of Asia