“a law unto themselves”: legal innovation in Ambae, Vanuatu Journal Articles

abstract

• There are few accounts in anthropological literature of radical legal innovation in small‐scale societies. This paper discusses a South Pacific society in which, following the end of colonial rule, people reorganized their villages, codified their laws, and established a court system well able to resolve most disputes. The case of Ambae, Vanuatu, raises the question: Why, in a world area well known for economic, religious, and political innovation, has legal innovation been reported so rarely? It is suggested that the centralist perspective that prevails in legal scholarship concerning the Pacific has led to an overemphasis on the coercive nature of the state and a devaluation of Pacific islanders' capacity for legal innovation. [law, innovation, colonialism, Melanesia, Vanuatu]

authors

• Rodman, William

status

• published 

publication date

• November 1985

has subject area

• 1601 Anthropology (FoR)
• 1606 Political Science (FoR)
• 2002 Cultural Studies (FoR)
• Anthropology (Science Metrix)

published in

• American Ethnologist  Journal

keywords

• 44 Human Society
• 4401 Anthropology

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1525/ae.1985.12.4.02a00010

start page

• 603

end page

• 624

volume

• 12

issue

• 4