Contenu du sommaire : Le monde Pacifique dans la mondialisation

Singing the winds, the currents and the changing world. A history of exchanges between the Yolngu of Arnhem Land and the peoples who arrived from Asia. This article describes the relationships between the Yolngu, an Aboriginal people from northern Australia, and the Macassans, a Muslim fishing people from the Indonesian island of Celebes. It discusses some of the mythical and ritual interpretations of these historical contacts, and how trading networks dating back to the 17th century were called upon to make sense of the social, economic and political upheaval that was the mark of colonisation, in order to bring out current interpretations of this history across the larger Pacific region.

The “Tahiti question” and public opinion under the July Monarchy
Public opinion under the July Monarchy was not prepared for the proclamation of a protectorate on an island that had existed within the British sphere of influence since the late 18th century. Through the sequence of events that began with the proclamation of the Tahiti protectorate (1842) initiated by Admiral Dupetit-Thouars and ratified by Guizot, which was followed by the no less sudden decision to annexe the islands (1843), in turn promptly revoked by the Guizot government (1844), public opinion in France became absorbed by the “Tahiti question”.The Tahiti protectorate was supported by a large section of public opinion, out of concern for the spread of Catholicism and/or French imperialism in the Antipodes. The most patriotic wing of the Liberals was all the more vexed when Guizot revoked the annexation out of fear of displeasing the British : French public opinion was no doubt less concerned with acquiring Tahiti than with thwarting the pre-eminence of the rival British in the Pacific.

Tahiti and its surrounding islands : formation and crisis of a centralised area
Polynesia has changed profoundly in the last two centuries, from a multitude of tiny island communities to a unified, macrocephalic and seemingly coherent whole. It has come to function as an interlocking system of central and peripheral areas that is still highly dependent on circumstances in mainland France and its territorial entities. The economic and financial difficulties affecting the centres are reactivating spatial lines of fracture between the different island groups.

Legitimation practice and discourse in “the South” : Australia in the Oceanian context
Since the late 1990s, and to further its legitimacy on the international scene, Australia has created what amounts to a dedicated area for the legitimation of its interventions in neighbouring areas, in south-east Asia and especially Melanesia. Both discourse and practice among Australia's leaders are fully consistent with a bid to rewrite and restructure this area around a uniquely Australian role. This symbolic (re)construction of the regional order under Canberra's domination is based on a perception of the surrounding area as unstable, and therefore of the responsibility incumbent upon a player that sees itself as the natural leader. The discourse also reveals the normative process under way in the region as regards the norms and governance imposed by Canberra beyond Australia's borders, to the point of bringing the sovereignty of neighbouring states into question.

The Pacific islands in the world of tourism
Although they are marginal in terms of tourist numbers, contemporary tourism owes much to the Pacific islands, especially Hawaii, as the origin of “3 S” tourism (sea, sand and sun). However modest in numbers, tourism has become essential to the viability of some of the Pacific micro-states and seems to be the one sector capable of reducing dependence on state benefits and stemming emigration. It is redefining local identities and helping to build a sense of local heritage.

Vanuatu : organising cohabitation between three official languages
Vanuatu, an independent republic since 1980, is one of the most linguistically diverse and complex countries in the world. Thanks to its unique colonial history as a Franco-British Condominium for over 70 years and a population scattered over more than 80 islands, Vanuatu has one national language, Bislama, no less than three official languages (French, English and Bislama) and more than a hundred indigenous languages, most of which are oral. This article discusses the complex linguistic situation in Vanuatu after more than thirty years of independence.

French speakers in Oceania and the legal status of multilingualism
The Francophone concept is designed to defend the French language while preserving cultural diversity. In Oceania, English is predominant and coexists with French, but also with many Polynesian languages. How do legal systems organise multilingualism ? Two different systems are considered. The principle of equal dignity justifies the status of languages as co-official, in line with the founding principles of international organisations. However, the rules adopted to specify the authoritative language can create similarities with hierarchical systems in which one official language cohabits with vernacular languages.

Teaching of the Kanak languages in New Caledonia
After describing the socio-linguistic upheavals that occurred in New Caledonia during the Colonial period, this article discusses the current precarious balance between the Kanak and French languages, especially in school. Like most of the world's “minor” languages, the Kanak languages are under threat, particularly from the dominant monolingual ideology and despite the legislative advances made possible by the Nouméa Accords, and despite scientific results that confirm the positive effects of bilingualism at an early age.

End-of-year tensions : inter-personal relationships and the logic of emotions in Fiji
In Western societies, changes in the atmosphere and cyclical phenomena are seen as part of the vicissitudes of human life, but this is not so in Oceania. At Nasau in Fiji, for example, changes of this sort arouse emotions that reveal a particular kind of logic in which individual traits combine with relationships with the cosmos and with the ancestral spirits. This contrast also raises questions about issues relating to social change.

International cooperation : a common language to understand and minimise natural coastal risks in the Pacific. The physical geography of the South Pacific makes its coastal populations highly vulnerable to catastrophic marine inundation. Little is known about the history of this inundation risk in the region, which is handicapping risk prevention and management policies. Analysing geographical archives can help to fill the gaps, but because this requires a range of skills that are rarely found together in the same territory, scientific cooperation at regional level has become essential.

“Have you got a boyfriend ? No, I haven't got a phone”. Morality, technical progress and sexuality in Vanuatu's urban areasIn the Melanesian archipelago of Vanuatu, the increasing movement of people, goods and ideas brought by globalisation through technical advances (Internet, mobile phones, television) has brought new ideas about sexuality (new sexual fantasies, marriage based on love), as well as new practices (penis enlargement, telephone flirting, viewing pornographic images, etc.). These are contributing factors to a wave of moral panic over advanced means of communication.

Culture's resources
The author discusses the way the indigenous cultures of the Pacific became sacred symbols of nationalist policies in the 1970s, before undergoing a process of aesthetisation that transformed them into marketable art. The article points out some of the links between these two moments in a process usually interpreted as a “cultural renaissance”, although both are actually successive phases in a continuous trend towards westernisation.

Tattooing as a medium in Polynesian culture
The art of tattooing and the dissemination of its material output as far afield as Europe forged a physical link between Antipodean travellers and the inhabitants of Polynesia. The language and the objects collected are an integral part of the history of contact with Others, and a study of tattooing and tattoos as a medium can reveal a great deal about these early exchanges that shaped Western views about the specificities of Polynesian culture.

Controversies over the classification of Aboriginal art as heritage
The many styles and techniques of Aboriginal art have been very effectively highlighted by Australian cultural institutions in recent years. However, policies to support artistic creation have, paradoxically, masked continued racism and discrimination towards the Aboriginal population. Artists working in Australia's cities and trained in its universities have adopted strategies to keep control over the way their own works are represented and to launch debates about the processes whereby their Aboriginal culture is designated as heritage. This article discusses ways in which they are involved in this Australian culture industry.

The promotion of Melanesia's architectural, sculptural and pictorial heritage
A great many masterpieces of Melanesian art are conserved in museums, while others have remained in the islands where they were created. In some cases, museum displays or the writings of researchers have highlighted their value. This has encouraged awareness among the island communities of the considerable importance of their cultural heritage among the family of nations. Thanks to recent advances in communication technology, recognition of some of these ancestral creations as masterpieces of the human heritage has given a new impetus to young Oceanian artists. The new communication technologies could be of significant help to them in their efforts to reclaim their cultural heritage.

Contemporary arts and artists in Oceania
While many artists have been aware of the globalisation of the arts scene since the late 1980s, this analysis of artists' careers and writings on the contemporary arts in the South Pacific shows their unequal integration in arts circles. The profile of Oceanian artists that emerges suggests that they are primarily considered as representing their cultures, and hence only partly included in worldwide arts networks that are still mainly under Western dominance. Deconstructing this profile helps to shed light on contemporary mechanisms of artists' legitimation in this part of the world.

Territories and circulation between contemporary Protestant communities in Oceania
This article analyses the logic of (de)territorialisation at work in Protestant churches and movements in Oceania, through two examples : the indigenous militants of the “historic” mâ'ohi Protestant church of French Polynesia, and the relationships between the Evangelical and Pentecostal churches and the local context. Over and above the obvious opposition between cultural roots and Evangelical globalisation, relationships with the local context and memory appear to have become a major arena for confrontation between Pentecostalism and traditional Christianity in Oceania.

Vatican II and images of Catholicism in Oceania
Less than a century after Catholic missionaries arrived in Oceania, the newly – or about to be - evangelised population was asked, here and there, to express their conceptions and images of their recently received faith. This trend, which began in the late 19th century in some of the Oceanian islands, was given definitive encouragement with Vatican II, to the point where it even became a norm to be achieved in all evangelised lands outside the Western world. Indigenous Christian iconography flourished from the Marquesas to Easter Island and as far as the Sepik Valley. But it was not a general trend nevertheless : it was limited by custom and by the dissemination of ecumenical imagery : the iconic style that flourished in western Catholic churches also influenced the cathedral at Rabaul. The trend is more marked insofar as the images produced locally are on the borderlines of orthodoxy.