Page 351 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

2015. The Melanesian people also said again their wish to rebuild the bridge that has been
destroyed for centuries.
A researcher or an anthropologist has to be able to describe the involvement of the
local people in all the aspects of their life. How the local people tell the stories of their
life, how there are frictions, and the way to solve the problems as they live together. The
human dimension of the ordinary people should be on a special agenda of all events the
village people experience in a simple, usual way (Howard, 1993).
Land is a very interesting social anthropological object study although the pioneers in
this field did not give access and enough information about the issue. The question that was
often asked when the west dominated the area was if the land was owned collectively or
individually. The usual finding in the Pacific area is that the ownership is collective with the
authority belonging to the chief of tribe. Collective ownership is then given to individuals.
Many newcomers to the area manipulated land ownership affairs, with ownership moved
from group to individuals or even to other groups (Guiart, 1993).
One thing that always becomes the center of attention of the history and anthropology
is the precious things that are never realized by today’s generation. That is why Malinowski
and a British anthropologist Rivers (1979) always stress two fundamental things: (i) the
duration of the research should be long to get as much as possible in the research location,
(ii) the change of population numbers should be reflected in the reviews and reflections.
Maurice Leenhardt continued Rivers’ findings (Clifford, 1992) by picturing the Pacific
people as the dynamics of human life that is typical in the Oceanic region, which is the
continuation of the spread of the people of Nusantara (Guiart, 1993).

Reflections of Global Culture
Re-reflection is needed about the real situation in the field about the condition of the
Solomon Island’s people and Pacific as a whole. The uniqueness and characteristics of the
Melanesian people make them not that easy to be led to match the western way of life.
The contrast is very sad—when businessmen live in abundance, the people in the village
live in a limited state. Inequity is a gap in social life that needs more better arrangement
(Keesing, 1978a, b, 1981, Keesing, 1993).
What is special in Baruya tribe in Papua New Guinea is that western people are always
identical with industrialization that often causes a shock for local people. The problem is
actually almost the same in other areas, such as in Africa, Asia, America, and Oceania. The
influence of ethnic groups is very dominant, for example, the local togetherness which

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