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The Tamils can be defined in terms of the people who speak Tamil as their mother tongue. The Tamil language is a member of the Dravidian/South Indian family of languages. The four southernmost states of India - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andra Pradesh - are predominantly linguistically Dravidian, each state is carved out on the basis of predominance of the four major Dravidian languages. South India and Sri Lanka have been homelands of the Tamils from the beginning of recorded history. The region roughly covered by the modern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala is identified as ancient "tamizakam" up to about 10th century AD. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Tamils migrated to some British colonies in search of employment and thus there are substantial Tamil populations in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, Fiji and South Africa. These volumes provide an extended introduction to the Tamils by discussing all the important facets that make them so vibrant a society. They are arranged thematically and provide a glimpse into Tamil history, culture, politics, language, literature and social progress. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Disappointing and ill thought out
With a title like "Apologies to Thucydides," what I was expecting was a more anthropological view on Thucydides' material. What I got what Sahlin's shaky justification for his tenuous and, dare I say, boring thesis.

Within the first few pages I knew this book wasn't going to be what I was hoping for, but I stuck with it, only to be thoroughly confused at the random trains of thought expressed. It seems to me that Sahlins had a list of things to tie the Pelopennesian War to before he wrote the book, and just did whatever he could to connect them. The purpose behind this is dubious and isn't explained in a satisfying manner at all.

I just fail to see the value in this book. My recommendation: don't waste your time. The book I was looking for, as far as I'm concerned, hasn't come out yet.

Interesting but heavy on jargon
Marshall Sahlins uses two seemingly unrelated episodes in history to question the narrative form of historiography with which we all grew up. He compares the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Greece with the nineteenth century conflict between Rewa and Bau, two Fijian kingdoms. Both featured an expansive, sea-going empire versus a more insular, land-oriented opponent.

Sahlins makes a very good case for the conflicts being driven by geography and culture, more than great men. He uses the two wars to illustrate the differences between narrative history and the more modern cultural view. He even recounts the 1951 National League pennant race between the Dodgers and the Giants to illustrate his point.

Although I prefer narrative history, with its seeming movers and shakers, and its chronological descriptions of events. I have to admit that Sahlins makes very good points for "Understanding History as Culture and Vice Versa" as he subtitled this book. My only real complaint, and this extends to most works of this genre, is its intensive use of sociological jargon. Some sentences are simply unintelligible to a sociologically untrained, but otherwise literate reader.

That said, this is a good read, and certainly expanded my horizons.
... Read more

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This two-volume work is a much expanded and up-dated study based on the author's original doctoral research of socio-cultural influences on language teaching in Fiji. The dissertation was nominated for the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 'Outstanding Dissertation of the Year' for its rigorous qualitative research methodology and use of flexible anthropological processes to investigate education in multicultural contexts. This volume describes new methods for cultural enquiry and for modelling of cultural constructions of language teaching that show how culture determines language attainment. The work is notable for its insights into cultural influences on educational attainments in language and for the widely applicable qualitative and quantitative cultural research methodologies devised for the study. In particular, this research is the inception study for the field of Culturometrics. As such it stands as a model for quality doctoral research, gives substantive insights into the cultures of Fiji and offers innovative tools for researchers of cultural identity. Searchable open-access copies, including colour-coded plates, can be downloaded at www.Culturometrics.org ... Read more

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This book explores the three-way struggle between the British colonists who settled North America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa; the British government and its U.S. and Canadian federal government successors; and the indigenous peoples of the settled regions. In the colonies, British law and popular norms clashed over a range of issues, including ready access to land, the property rights of aboriginal people, the taking of property for public purposes, and master-servant relationships. This book will greatly appeal to law professors, historians, and anyone interested in the rights of native peoples. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Arena Magazine, published by Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd. on August 1, 2000. The length of the article is 1293 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: DISLOCATIONS -- SALMAN RUSHDIE AND FIJI.
Author: John Hinkson
Publication: Arena Magazine (Refereed)
Date: August 1, 2000
Publisher: Arena Printing and Publications Pty. Ltd.
Page: 5

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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This volume offers a theoretical exploration of the concept of the communication system as a tool of social inquiry. Focusing on the discourse of conflict management, Arno explores the linkage between everyday communication about conflict, through talk and other forms of message exchange among individuals and groups, and large-scale societal conflicts and the institutions that shape change by maintaining dominant forms of communicative causation (cause and effect in social situations). This volume also develops a theory of the relationship between conflict and communication that demands ethnography as a theoretical necessity. ... Read more

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Our Wealth Is Loving Each Other explores the fluid and context-bound nature of cultural and personal identity among indigenous Fijians. While national identity in Fiji is often defined in opposition to the West through reference to a romanticized pre-modern tradition, individual Fijians are often more concerned with defining their identity vis-^-vis other villagers and other groups within Fiji. When people craft self accounts to justify their position within the indigenous Fijian community they question and redefine both tradition and modernity. ... Read more

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Examining the complex and multifaceted phenomenon of Christianity in Fiji, "My God My Land" reveals the deeply complex and often paradoxical dynamics and tensions between processes of change and continuity, both as they unfold in the representations and practices of Christianity and tradition in people's everyday lives, faiths and ceremonial and ritual situations, and in relation to the broader, 'national' level of politics and media debate in wider society. It draws upon extensive fieldwork in the region to consider the intertwining of people's beliefs; their understandings and practices of their Christian faith, and the manner in which their faith is interwoven with ideals, understandings and practices of 'tradition', with change and with contemporary politics. The complexities discussed in the book reflect not only the entwining of the past in the present, but also the inevitable entanglement and representation of the local and the global and will be of interest not only to anthropologists of the South Pacific region, but also to social scientists working in the field of religion, representation, tradition and social change. ... Read more