Ton Otto

List of publications                                                                       

Monographs and edited volumes

xii. nd.        Experiments in Holism. Contemporary Theory and Practice in Anthropology, co-editor Nils Bubandt, Oxford: Blackwell (forthcoming)

xi. 2006      Warfare and society:  Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives, co-editors Henrik Thrane and Helle Vandkilde, Aarhus University Press, 557 pp.

x. 2005      Tradition and agency: Tracing cultural continuity and invention, co-editor Poul Pedersen, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 355 pp.

ix. 2000      Perplexities of identification: Anthropological studies in cultural differentiation and the use of resources, co-editor Henk Driessen, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 265 pp.

viii. 2000    Anthropology and the Revival of Tradition: Between Cultural Continuity and Invention. Special issue of FOLK: Journal of the Danish Ethnographic Society, Vol. 42, co-editor Poul Pedersen, 199 pp.

vii. 1997     Narratives of Nation in the South Pacific, co-editor Nicholas Thomas, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 256 pp.

vi. 1997      Cultural dynamics of religious change in Oceania, co-editor Ad Borsboom, Leiden: KITLV Press, 144 pp.

v. 1997      Tre tiltrædelsesforelæsninger på Moesgaard ('Three inaugural lectures at Moesgaard), with Else Roesdahl and Henrik Thrane. Aarhus: Aarhus University, Faculty of Humanities, 96 pp.

iv. 1993      Pacific Islands Trajectories. Five personal views, Canberra: The Australian National University, 177 pp.

iii. 1992      Imagining Cargo Cults, Special issue of Canberra Anthropology 15(2), 130 pp.

ii. 1991       The politics of tradition in Baluan: Social change and the construction of the past in a Manus society, The Centre for Pacific Studies, Univ. of Nijmegen, 320 pp.

i. 1990        The sociology of baitfish royalties in Papua New Guinea, co-authors James Turner and Colin Filer, Port Moresby: University of Papua New Guinea, 61 pp.

Book chapters and articles (peer reviewed)

50. nd.       ‘From kastam to kalsa? Leadership, cultural heritage and modernization in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea', in E. Hviding and K. Rio. (eds), Cultural Heritage and Political Innovation: The State and Alternative Social Movements in the Pacific, Sean Kingston Publishing (co-author S. Dalsgaard, forthcoming).

49. nd.       ‘Inventing traditions and remembering the past in Manus', in Elfriede Hermann, Changing contexts - Shifting meanings: Transformations of Cultural Traditions in Oceania, Hawaii University Press (in press)

48. nd.       ‘What happened to Cargo Cults? Material Religions in Melanesia and the West', in Bruce Kapferer, Kari Telle and Annelin Eriksen, Religious Movements, Emergent Socialities and the Post-Nation State, Berghahn.

47. 2009    ‘What happened to Cargo Cults? Material Religions in Melanesia and the West', Social Analysis 53 (1): 82-102.

46. 2009    ‘Guerra e scambi in una società melanesiana prima della pacificazione coloniale. Il caso di Manus, Papua Nuova Guinea', in E. Gnecchi Ruscone and A. Paini (eds) Antropologia dell'Oceania, 155-181, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.

45. 2008    ‘Fieldwork in Manus, Papua New Guinea: On Change, Exchange and Anthropological Knowledge', in J. Kommers and J. Venbrux (eds), Cultural Styles of Knowledge Transmission: Essays in Honour of Ad Borsboom, 102-107, Aksant: Amsterdam.

44. 2007    ‘Rethinking Tradition: Invention, Cultural Continuity and Agency', in Jürg Wassmann and Katharina Stockhaus (eds.), Experiencing New Worlds, 36-57, New York & Oxford: Berghahn Books.

43. 2007    ‘Marshall Sahlins: Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities:  Structure in the Early History of the Sandwich Islands Kingdom. 1981. Islands of History. 1985.' In Ole Høiris (ed.), Antropologiske mesterværker, 289-301, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

42. 2006    ‘Warfare, discourse, and identity: an introduction', in: T. Otto, H. Thrane and H. Vandkilde (eds), Warfare and society:  Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives, 385-391, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

41. 2006    ‘Conceptions of warfare in Western thought and research: an introduction' in: T. Otto, H. Thrane and H. Vandkilde (eds), Warfare and society:  Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives, 23-28, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

40. 2006    ‘Warfare and exchange in a Melanesian society before colonial pacification: The case of Manus, Papua New Guinea', in: T. Otto, H. Thrane and H. Vandkilde (eds), Warfare and society:  Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives, 187-199, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

39. 2006        ‘Warfare and society: Archaeological and social anthropological perspectives', co-authored with Henrik Thrane and Helle Vandkilde, in: T. Otto, H. Thrane and H. Vandkilde (eds), Warfare and society:  Archaeological and Social Anthropological Perspectives, 9-19, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

38. 2006    ‘Etnografisch veldonderzoek' (Ethnographic field research), in F. Wester, K. Renckstorf and P. Scheepers, Onderzoekstypen in de communicatie wetenschap, 461-485, Alphen aan den Rijn: Kluwer.

37. 2005        ‘Concerns, norms and social action: Notes on Fredrik Barth's analytical model', FOLK: Journal of the Danish Ethnographic Society 46/47: 43-57.

36. 2005        ‘Disentangling traditions: Culture, agency and power', in T. Otto and P. Pedersen (eds), Tradition and agency: tracing cultural continuity and invention, 11-49, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

35. 2004    ‘Work, wealth and knowledge: Enigmas of cargoist identifications', in Holger Jebens (ed.), Cargo, cult and culture critique, 209-226, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.

34. 2003    'Normer og handling i et antropologisk perspektiv', in Sten Schaumburg-Müller and Bodil Selmer (eds), Retlig mangfoldighed: En fælles udfordring for retsvidenskab og antropologi, 29-44, Copenhagen: Jurist- og Økonomforbundets Forlag.

33. 2002    ‘Manus: the historical and social context', in Christian Kaufmann, Christin Kocher Schmid and Sylvia Ohnemus (eds), Admiralty Islands: Arts from the South Seas, 29 - 37, Zürich: Museum Rietberg Zürich.

32. 2002    ‘Chefs, big men et bureaucrates: Weber et les politiques de la tradition à Baluan (Papouasie, Nouvelle-Guinée)', in Christine Hamelin & Eric Wittersheim  (eds), La tradition et l'État: Églises, pouvoirs et politiques culturelles dans le Pacifique, 103 - 129, Paris: L'Harmattan (Cahiers du Pacifique Sud Contemporain).

31. 2000    ‘Tradition between continuity and invention: an introduction', co-authored with Poul Pedersen, FOLK: Journal of the Danish Ethnographic Society 42: 3-17.

30. 2000    ‘Protean perplexities: An introduction', co-authored with Henk Driessen, in H. Driessen and T. Otto, Perplexities of identification: Anthropological studies in cultural differentiation and the use of resources, 8-26, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.

29. 1999    ‘En antropologs afskeds-fest: Om informeret deltagelse og deltagende informanter', in Ole Høiris, Hans Jørgen Madsen, Torsten Madsen and Jens Vellev. (eds), Menneskelivets mangfoldighed: Arkæologisk og antropologisk forskning på Moesgård, 127-134, Moesgaard, Aarhus University.

28. 1999    ‘Cargo cults everywhere? Review article', Anthropological Forum 9(1): 83- 98.

27. 1998    ‘Resource management in Lavongai and Tigak Islands: changing practices, changing identities', in Jürg Wassmann (ed.), Pacific answers to Western hegemony: cultural practices of identity construction, 229-252, Berg Publishers: Oxford.

26. 1998    ‘Paliau's stories: Autobiography and automythography of a Melanesian prophet', Focaal 32: 71-87.

25. 1998    ‘Local narratives of a great transformation: Conversion to Christianity in Manus, Papua New Guinea', FOLK: Journal of the Danish Ethnographic Society 40:71-97.

24. 1997    ‘After the "tidal wave": Bernard Narokobi and the creation of a Melanesian Way', in
T. Otto and N. Thomas (eds), Narratives of nation in the South Pacific, 33-64, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.

23. 1997    ‘Narratives of nation in the South Pacific', co-authored with Nicholas Thomas, in
T. Otto and N. Thomas (eds), Narratives of nation in the South Pacific, 1-13, Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.

22. 1997    ‘Introduction: Transformation and tradition in Oceanic religions', co-authored with Ad Borsboom, in T. Otto and A. Borsboom, Cultural dynamics of religious change in Oceania, 1-10, Leiden: KITLV Press.

21. 1997    ‘Epilogue. Cultural dynamics of religious change', in T. Otto and A. Borsboom, Cultural dynamics of religious change in Oceania, 103-112, Leiden: KITLV Press.

20. 1997    ‘Social practice and the ethnographic circle: Rethinking the "ethnographer's magic" in a late modern world' (Inaugural lecture, Aarhus University), in: Else Roesdahl, Henrik Thrane and Ton Otto, Tre tiltrædelsesforelæsninger på Moesgaard, 53-96, Aarhus: Det Humanistiske Fakultet.

19. 1997    ‘Informed participation and participating informants', in C. Jourdan (ed.), Essays in honour of Roger Keesing, Special Volume of Canberra Anthropology 20 (1/2):96-108.

18. 1997    ‘Baitfish royalties and customary marine tenure in Manus, Papua New Guinea', in P. Brown-Glick and A. Ploeg (eds),  Special Issue of Anthropological Forum 7(4):667-690.

17. 1997    ‘De grenzen van de dâr al-islâm: De Pacific' (The boundaries of the dâr al-islâm: The Pacific), in H. Driessen (ed.), In het huis van de Islam, 100-104, Nijmegen: SUN.

16. 1996    ‘The Asaro Mudmen: Local property, public culture?', co-author Robert J.Verloop, The Contemporary Pacific 8(2): 349-386.

15. 1995    ‘Antropologisch vergelijken in vergelijkend perspectief:  Enige overwegingen over Nieuw Guinea als Etnologisch Studieveld' (Anthropological comparison in a comparative perspective: Some reflections on New Guinea as a Field of  Ethnological Study), in C. Baak, M. Bakker, D. van der Meij (eds.), Tales from a concave world. Liber Amicorum Bert Voorhoeve, 425-439, Leiden: Projects Division, Department of Languages and Cultures of South-East Asia and Oceania, Leiden University.

14. 1995    ‘Etnografisch veldonderzoek' (Ethnographic field research), in H. Hüttner, K. Renckstorf and F. Wester, Onderzoekstypen in de communicatie wetenschap, 496-517, Houten/Diegem: Bohn Stafleu Van Loghum.

13. 1994    ‘Feasting and fighting: Rank and power in precolonial Baluan', in M.Jolly and M.S.Mosko (eds), Transformations of hierarchy. Structure, history and horizon in the Austronesian world , Special Volume History and Anthropology 7(1-4):223-240.

12. 1994    ‘A bibliography of Manus Province', Research in Melanesia 18:113-177.

11. 1993    ‘Empty tins for lost traditions? The West's material and intellectual involvement in the Pacific', in T. Otto (ed), Pacific Islands Trajectories. Five personal views, 1-28, Canberra: The Australian National University.

10. 1993    ‘Cultural history between structure and contingency: the Manus example', Canberra Anthropology 16(2): 97-126.

9. 1992      ‘The ways of kastam: Tradition as category and practice in a Manus village', Oceania 62(2):264-283.

8. 1992      ‘The Paliau Movement in Manus and the objectification of tradition', History and Anthropology 5:427-454.

7. 1992      ‘From Paliau Movement to Makasol: the politics of representation', Canberra Anthropology 15(2):49-68.

6. 1992      ‘Introduction: Imagining Cargo Cults', Canberra Anthropology 15(2):1-10.

5. 1990      ‘De antropoloog en het individu: Beschouwingen over ideologie en interculturele vergelijking' (The anthropologist and the individual: Reflections on ideology and intercultural comparison), in R. Corbey and P. van der Grijp (eds), Natuur en cultuur: Beschouwingen op het raakvlak van antropologie en filosofie, 139-156, Baarn: Ambo.

4. 1988      ‘Fieldwork report: Ideology and social change on Baluan Island, Manus Province', Research in Melanesia 11/12:8-18.

3. 1987      ‘De nieuwe ideologie van de Paliau Beweging' (The new ideology of the Paliau Movement), in P. van der Grijp, T. Lemaire, A. Trouwborst (eds), Sporen in de antropologie, 233-247, Nijmegen: Katholieke Universiteit.

2. 1986      ‘The ways of history', Review article of Marshall Sahlins, ‘Islands of History' (1985) Canberra Anthropology 9(2): 72-79.

1. 1984      ‘Waarde, arbeid en betekenis: Antropologie en de kritiek op de economische ideologie' (Value, work, and meaning: Anthropology and the critique of  economic ideology), in T. Lemaire (ed.), Antropologie en ideologie, 41-79, Groningen: Konstapel.

Exhibition

2004          ‘Yumi bildim kano'. Initiator and coordinator of an exhibition about the building of canoes in Manus, Papua New Guinea (including issues of craftsmanship, identity, intellectual property, exchange and transport). The exhibition included the building of a large seagoing sailing canoe from original materials by five Manus craftsmen, as well as the activities of a Manus painter Joe Nalo celebrating ‘traditional' village life. The exhibition generated a lively interest in the press and local television and the canoe was launched in the Bay of Aarhus and sailed all the way to Copenhagen. Moesgård Museum, May -August.

Audiovisual productions

2007          ‘Ngat is dead - Studying Mortuary Traditions. Baluan Island, Manus Province, Papua New Guinea', direction: Christian Suhr Nielsen and Ton Otto; Co-direction: Steffen Dalsgaard; production: Ton Otto and Christian Suhr Nielsen, Aarhus: Moesgaard Film. This film has been screened at 17 international conferences and film festivals and has received the ‘Prix du patrimoine culturel immatériel' at the Jean Rouch International Film Festival in Paris (2008).

1996          'RK begrafenis in Brunssum: een oefening in etnografisch observatie', red. T.Otto and F. Wester, Nijmegen: Catholic University.

1995          ‘Rouw en begrafenisrituelen in Brunssum: een etnografisch interview met Mevrouw L. Boh-Hermans' (two tapes for instruction in ethnographic interviewing), red. T.Otto and F.Wester, Nijmegen: Catholic University

1995          ‘Uitvaartcentrum Brunssum: een etnografisch interview met de heer J.M.Peters' (two tapes for courses in ethnographic interviewing), red. T.Otto and F.Wester, Nijmegen: Catholic University.

1988          ‘Paliau Maloat: The last prophet of the world' (Lorengau, Manus, Papua New Guinea, 28 February 1988), Instructional Resources Unit, The Australian National University (VHS videofilm for purposes of research and instruction).

1988          ‘Balopa cultural show: Baluan Island, Manus, Papua New Guinea, 28 & 29 December 1987', Instructional Resources Unit, The Australian National University (VHS videofilm for purposes of research and instruction).

Book reviews (refereed journals)

2008          ‘Simon Harrison: Fracturing Resemblances: Identity and Mimetic Conflict in Melanesia and the West', The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 8 (in press)

2002          ‘Edvard Hviding, Guardians of Marovo Lagoon: Practice, place, and politics in maritime Melanesia. University of Hawai'i Press', Oceania 72(4): 295-296.

2001          ‘Geoffrey M. White and Lamont Lindstrom (eds), Chiefs Today: Traditional Pacific Leadership and the Postcolonial State; and Don Shuster, Peter Larmour, and Karin von Strokirch (eds), Leadership in the Pacific islands: tradition and the future', The Contemporary Pacific 13(2): 569-574.

2000          ‘Sylvia Ohnemus, An Ethnology of the Admiralty Islanders: The Alfred Bühler Collection, Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Crawford House Publishing', Pacific Arts: The Journal of the Pacific Arts Association 22: 113-117.

1998          ‘Nancy Lutkehaus, Christian Kaufmann, et al. (eds), Sepik heritage: Tradition and change in Papua New Guinea. Carolina Academic Press', Canberra Anthropology 21(1):118-119.

1998          ‘G.W. Trompf (ed.), Cargo cults and millenarian movements: Transoceanic comparisons of new religious movements. Mouton de Gruyter', Canberra Anthropology 21(1):110-113.

1997          ‘Rituals, religious beliefs and society in Oceania' (review of Daniel de Coppet and André Iteanu (eds), Cosmos and society in Oceania. Berg, 1995), Focaal 30/31:277-279.

1997          ‘R.J. Foster, Social reproduction and history in Melanesia. Mortuary ritual, gift exchange, and custom in the Tanga Islands, Cambridge University Press', The Contemporary Pacific 9(2): 529-532.

1995          ‘Michael French Smith, Hard Times on Kairiru Island. Poverty, Development, and Morality in a Papua New Guinea Village. University of Hawaii Press', The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1(4):875-876.

1995          ‘Achsah H. Carrier and James G. Carrier, Structure and Process in a Melanesian Society: Ponam's progress in the Twentieth Century, Chur and Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers', The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1(3):654-655.

1994          ‘G.W. Trompf, Melanesian Religion. Cambridge University Press', Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde 150(1): 237-239.

1993          ‘A. Blok, De bokkerijders: Roversbenden en geheime genootschappen in de landen van Overmaas', Antropologische Verkenningen 12(2):83-85.

Other publications (non peer reviewed)

2004          ‘Social handling og kulturel kompleksitet: Barth om kundskabstradtioner og "concerns"', Jordens Folk 39(1): 40-49.

2004          'Manus: historie, samfund og kultur', Jordens Folk 39(2): 4-11.

2000          ‘Ethnographic filming on Manus', Informanten 4: 8-11.

1999          ‘Antropologi 2020', Jordens Folk 34(4): 6-8.

1999          ‘The anthropological methods: taking them home', in: Marianne Gullestad, Cathrine Hasse, Ton Otto, Andreas Roepstorff and Karen Ellen Spannow, Antropologiens muligheder og metoder i eget samfund, 44-57, Aarhus: Dansk Etnografisk Forening.

1997          ‘Social practice and the ethnographic circle: Rethinking the "ethnographer's magic" in a late modern world', Working Paper 1, Moesgaard: Department of Ethnography and Social Anthropology. 52 pages.

1995          ‘The Basel Conference of the European Society for Oceanists: A personal report', Oceania Newsletter 15: 23-25.

1994          ‘Visiting Fellowship at the ANU, Canberra, Australia', Oceania Newsletter (Centre for Pacific Studies) 14: 17-18.

1993          ‘Report on the First European Colloquium on Pacific Studies', Oceania Newsletter (Centre for Pacific Studies) 11/12: 2-20, (co-author: A. Vanhemelrijk).

1993          ‘In memoriam Roger Martin Keesing', Oceania Newsletter (Centre for Pacific Studies) 11/12: 55-57 (also published in North-East Wantok System Newsletter 22).

1992          ‘Traditie in Melanesië' (Tradition in Melanesia), in A. Borsboom en A. Ploeg, Stille Zuidzee, 65-66, Amsterdam: Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (Landenreeks).

1992          ‘The politics of tradition in Baluan: Social change and the construction of the past in a Manus society', Oceania Newsletter (Centre for Pacific Studies) 10:6-12.

1992          ‘Revival of tradition in the Pacific', Research notes from the Netherlands 1992/2:19.

1990          ‘Antropologisch veldwerk in Papoea Nieuw Guinea' (Anthropological fieldwork in Papua New Guinea), Nieuwsbrief Centrum voor Studies van Australië en Oceanië 7:2-14.

1989          ‘A sociological study of the baitfish areas in New Ireland and Manus provinces', (Report for the Department of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Port Moresby), Canberra: Department of Anthropology, Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, 90 pp.

1989          ‘Some notes on two series of photographs from Papua New Guinea', Introduction to: Two series of photographs from Papua New Guinea, PMB 1010 (Microfilm), Canberra: Pacific Manuscript Bureau, Australian National University.

Research communication

In addition I have been active giving public lectures, academic and popular, at many different places, and have been interviewed by Newspapers, Radio and TV.
A full list of activities can be provided on request.