1,720,985 research outputs found
Rap Music in Aotearoa: A Sociological and Musicological Analysis
No full textWhole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.This thesis examines rap music in Aotearoa, demonstrates its popularity, and explores its presence as a cultural commodity, particularly among Polynesian youth. I show how analysis of a popular musical phenomenon can be used to illustrate other social facts such as identity, political awareness, and alliance. American rap's history, musical characteristics, misogyny, profanity, racial implications, associations with deviance, and nihilism are explored, outlining multiple levels of meaning and intention, not excusing its occasional harshness, but presenting perspectives from within rap and critical race theory discourses. From interviews with school students, teachers, rappers, adults involved with young people and persons in the media industry, I show that, in Aotearoa, it is the Polynesian youth who have embraced rap, both as fans and as performers, from breakdancing in the early 80's to the latest surge of "Pasifika Hip Hop". Through observation and collection of videos, CD's, sales charts, magazines and news articles I conclude that American rap has had a strong presence in the media and popular music history of Aotearoa, with many local rap artists and songs having local chart successes. Through musical and lyrical analysis I summarise and compare the themes and musical influences of both American and Aotearoa rap and discover that Aotearoa rap is used to assert and construct local identities exploring race, culture and history. The thesis begs the question: Why is rap so popular particularly among Polynesian youth? Four responses are explored: a) The rappers themselves cite a similar socio-economic and historical circumstance to African Americans; b) Rap is a popular globalised popular cultural form, possibly representing a generalised trend in Americanisation and homogenisation, (which I refute on the basis of rap's inherent "blackness" arguing that hip hop is rather a voice of opposition); c) Rap as a genre has kaupapa [philosophy] and presents an ideal tool for the exigencies of Polynesian youth's exploration of identity and community and for the communication of political and pride; and finally d) The Polynesian youth of Aotearoa feel a spiritual connection to rap and hip hop, hearing something of themselves in it, and have taken to it like it was already theirs. I offer that rap has been a Turangawaewae [place to stand] for the rangatahi [youth] and they have injected this fertile African American popular music genre with their own culture and ideology
FROM MORAL COMMUNITY TO MORAL COMMUNITIES: THE FOUNDATIONS OF MIGRANT SOCIAL SOLIDARITY AMONG SAMOANS IN URBAN AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND
Get PDFThere is clear evidence of moral community within early expatriate migrant Samoan communities in New Zealand. This moral community was partly the consequence of many migrants’ common life experiences and their resultant commitment to, and belief in, the integrity of their worldview and lifestyle. While commitment was a necessary condition, it was not a sufficient condition for moral community. This article argues that critical to the emergence of moral community were demographic, political, and economic factors—often underrated in anthropological explanations—that influenced the choice of migrants by their families, the processes of migration, and the concentration of migrants in residential and occupational areas. First- and second-generation New Zealand–born Samoans grow up with different social, political, and economic realities, and they do not share the social experiences that underpinned their parents’ and grandparents’ moral community. They may reconstitute a new form of moral community derived from parental cultures and common experiences of, and social positions within, New Zealand society
Review of Migration and Health in a Small Society: The Case of Tokelau, by Albert F Wessen (editor), Antony Hooper, Judith Huntsman, Ian A M Prior, and Clare E Salmond
No full textOASIS OR MIRAGE: THE FARMING OF BLACK PEARL IN THE NORTHERN COOK ISLANDS
Get PDFBy the late twentieth century, small island states in the Pacific faced severe problems resulting from the ways in which they had become integrated into the world capitalist economy since the early nineteenth century. Generic environmental, economic, and social problems follow from dependence on the production of a relatively small number of crops for sale in the world economy, out-migration and remittances, and foreign aid. Most states have sought to reduce their dependence and to move toward greater degrees of economic self-sufficiency. In the case of atolls, opportunities for development are typically regarded as minimal because of fragile ecosystems and a shortage of land, fresh water, and local energy. Black-pearl farming is an environmentally sustainable activity that has led to higher incomes and repopulation in the Northern Cook Islands. While it is not the solution for all atolls, its success warrants careful examination
CHANGING CONTOURS OF KINSHIP: THE IMPACTS OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ON KINSHIP ORGANIZATION IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
Get PDFThe incorporation of microstates into the capitalist world-system sets the stage for profound transformations of kinship organization. This article argues that, while ideologies of kinship may remain largely intact, the actual organization of kinship is changing. It explores the roles of social, demographic, political, and economic factors in the transformation of the structure of kinship and family in the South Pacific in the period since continuous contact with the West commenced some 170 years ago. The case of Western Samoa is offered as an example of the process of change that is occurring at varying rates throughout Pacific Island societies
Economic and Political Restructuring and the Sustainability of Migrant Remittances: The Case of Western Samoa
Get PDF
Review of On the Edge of the Global: Modern Anxieties in a Pacific Island Nation, by Niko Besnier
No full text
Review of Tongans Overseas: Between Two Shores, by Helen Morton Lee; Saili Matagi: Samoan Migrantsin Australia, by LeuluFelise Va'a
No full text- …
