Page 353 - THE MELANESIA DIASPORA FILE CETAK ISI 10022017

In reality, changes have to involve ecology and humans as the center and main current.
In the 1930s, the anthropologists Feliks Keesing and Ernest Beaglehole studied changes in
culture in Polynesia. Acculturations happen. It is the melting of local tradition and culture in
the western culture and way of thinking. The recordings from the missionaries, the freelance
researchers, economic observers, and pilgrims did not accurately portray the society.
Firth (2013) gives a very significant picture of kinship, political systems, and other
issues around the Pacific. Firth pays attention to local things that should have become
the attention of other anthropologists in reviewing more deeply about the social reality in
the Pacific society (Polynesia). There are some difficulties to describe the transition in the
values between the western influence and the local people. Firth introduces a new way of
study in history by not holding onto the stereotypes in the society but by going deeper in
paying attention to the mindset of the people which are related to the cultural heritage of
local people (Howard, 1993).
Firth’s (2013) study on Tikopia gives a valuable picture of various ways of thinking
the local people have, which have not been fully recorded and calculated by previous
researchers. Two decades after that, in 1980, the researchers, Dening (1980) and Sahlins
(1981) produced descriptions of Hawaii and the Marquesas which give more understanding
about Polynesia as a whole. The study reviews further about the meeting between the
western culture and the Polynesian. Although this writing is dominated more by the critical
reference about the presence of the west that has ruins the way the Polynesians think
(Howard, 1993).
An interesting thing that is revealed by these experts is the Polynesian cultural
revitalization by cooperation between archeologists and anthropologists.
“If we are to write credible histories of Polynesian societies during the colonial period,
however, we have to do more than take European biases into account. We have to do
something to compensate for the silencing of Polynesian voices. In my opinion, one of the
best ways to do this is through biography, and by assisting and encouraging Polynesian
elders to record their won autobiographies” (Howard, 1993: 87-88).
The history of colonialism, according to Howard, is European culture taught at schools,
and only a little that deals with the life of common people, especially the people in remote
areas. Howard was right that history has to be told in the context of human life. Good
history has to give a realistic picture about an area with the people’s identification and
cultural background which are correct and unique (Howard, 1993).

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