Book Review : The Rahui : Legal pluralism in Polynesian traditional management of resources and territories

Abstract

The debated concepts of tapu/kapu/tabu (spiritual restriction or sacred prohibition) and mana (Austronesian concept of power, effectiveness and prestige) have been something of a crucial obsession within anthropological literature, both in attempts to understand Oceanic underpinnings of power and religion and, in recent decades, in their application towards fulfilling western and global desires for biodiversity conservation. In this edited volume, readers are offered the first work devoted to discussing the related, but understudied, concept of rahui/kahui/ra’ui (resource or territory restriction) in multiple Polynesian small states and across deep time. The book is first and foremost a valuable and ethnographically rich resource for anyone studying taboo institutions or contemporary Pacific governance broadly. It also details the unique ways that small jurisdictions assert cultural as well as legal identity while contending with foreign governing powers and large-scale international forces. Finally, the work provides invaluable English language access to French scholarship in Oceania previously underutilised by large swathes of academia.