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wrongly. They also meet an anthropologist who comes to collect their stories and tales. It
seems there is a mistake because native people only passively listen to the stories from the
outside world about the treatment and judgment that are biased (Otto, 1993).
In the meantime, the influence of the conquerors is obvious in Baruya’s life in Papua New
Guinea that started with trading salt, but expanded over the course of time. Traditional life
is changed into something more modern but only temporary. Society connects all that
happens with signs and symbols they knew earlier. An event in society is naturally marked
by nature. For example, once the Baruya people saw two big birds chasing and fighting
each other in the sky. It so happened that it was a sign that after white people came, World
War II broke out, and there was a big fight between Japan, the United States and Australia
(Godelier, 1993).
A lot of anthropologists are only attracted to what is kept in the museums and the
stories told by the discoverers without really paying attention to the dynamics of the
contemporary life of the Pacific people, which is actually very rich. The thing that is often
found is an effort to illustrate the Pacific people as development or make comparisons with
western life. The Pacific mind has to be seen in the Pacific context, not comparing it to the
other models from different areas like in the west. Western romanticism spread by the
travelers should be stopped and the materials needing reflection are the basic thing the
Pacific people have. They are like an empty vessel, filled with all kinds of cultures shared by
the land discoverers (Otto, 1993).
Kessing (1993) suggests that the Pacific people have abandoned their own traditions
only to accept western culture under pressure and despair. Local potential is also lowered
by the time by the attitude of the discoverers who emphasize western systems and
patterns. We can see everywhere that the Pacific people leave their tradition and use the
new one by power, be it by the system and new cultural system, or the strategy of religious
life. Although the ‘power’ of the politics of independence has taken over the Pacific region,
but economically and culturally, they still depend on the occupying countries or the
countries outside the Pacific. Modernization in their context means they have to follow
the western pattern that is very strong and dominates all situations in the Pacific region
(Keesing, 1993).

Looking for the Root of Life
The job of the anthropologists is to criticize by doing re-research on the Pacific, which is
not just lost in globalization. A deeper study on the Pacific does not mean that people in

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