About The Book

PIKA-PIKA (a Japanese onomatopoeic expression conjuring up the flashing of fireflies) is a multi-disciplinary, multi-regional collection of academic papers written by twenty-two scholars (with seventeen Ph.D.s among them), of ten different nationalities and an even greater number of ethnicities. The authors, who are scattered across the globe from North America through the South Pacific to East, Southeast and South Asia, have contributed to this
book because they wish to honour in this way a cherished friend. Pauline Hetland Walker, who lost her bold fight against breast cancer in 2005.

THE BOOK includes contributions from anthropologists, sociologists, linguists and geographers, as well as from music, theatre and literary specialists. Twelve chapters focus on the Asian region (eight concerning Southeast Asia, two, South Asia and two, East Asia). There are contributions also on Oceania (two), North America (two and a part of a third), South America (one) and the Caribbean (one), as well as on Britain (one) and East Africa (one).

AN ECLECTIC COLLECTION of materials, which, incidentally, would have delighted the person whom they honour, all the individual contributions have been inspired, nonetheless. by Pauline Walker’s own special life interests. They are grouped together in this book according to her passions: music, song and dance (Part One), literature, poetry and theatre (Part Two), pottery (Part Three), craftsmanship (Part Four), women’s issues (Part Five), health care practices (Part Six) and, finally, religious diversity, myth and ritual (Part Seven).

THE EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION, besides previewing the collection, tells a little of the story of Pauline’s life; in addition, each author has her or his own comments on that score. All this makes Pika-Pika a particularly personal and poignant book. This notwithstanding, it is also a work that has been written, following exacting scholarly criteria, mostly by members of the academy, who seek not only to honour a departed friend but also to contribute to the scholarly literature of their respective disciplines. Pika-Pika is not a vanity publication; it will succeed as a befitting and enduring memorial to Pauline Hetland Walker only if academic institutions choose to secure copies for their collections.

THE EDITOR, Anthony Walker, is a British social anthropologist and now Professor of Anthropology at the University of Brunei Darussalam in Bandar Seri Begawan. He was married to Pauline from 2 May 1971 until her death on 27 March 2005. Brief profiles and photographs) of the authors appear at the head of their respective chapters.

About The Editor

Anthony R. Walker, an Oxford-educated british social anthropologist, has for decades pursued two research interests. He began his anthropological career among the Toda People (1962-3) and has authored The Toda of South India: A New Look (1986) and Between Tradition and Modernity and Other Essays on thye Toda of South India (1998). In the late 1960s he was researach officer for the Lahu people at the Tribal Research Centre, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Dr. Walker’s continuing field research among Lahu now spans 36 years. He has published more than sixty scholarly articles, some of which have been translated into Chinese and published in Kunming (1998). Among other publications on the Lahu and their neighbours are his two-volume report to the Royal Tai Government, Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) Village Society and Economy in North Thailand (1970). Kahu Nyi (Red Lahu) New Year Celebrations: Ethnographic and Textual Materials (11983), and his edited works Farmers in teh Hills: Upland Peoples of North Thailand (1975). The Highland Heritage: Essays on Upland North Thailand (1992), and Mvuh Hpa Mi Hpa: Creating heaven Creating earth -An Epic Myth of the Lahu People in Yunnan (1995).

Dr. Walker has held teaching and research positions at universities in Malaysia, Singapore, the United States, Fiji and currently Brunei.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Anthony R. Walker. Introduction: To Honour a Life Well Spent

PART ONE: JOIE DE VIVRE-OF MUSIC, SONG AND DANCE

Chapter 2: Bill Egan. Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West: The Last of the Modern Jazz Quartet
Chapter 3: Elizabeth Hinton. Sacred Music of the Karen Hills
Chapter 4: Erika Bourguignon. Dance and Trance in Ritual and Performance: Haiti and Beyond
Chapter 5: Vineeta Sinha. A Felicitous Meeting: Pauline Walker and the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society

PART TWO: THE THRILL OF LITERATURE, POETRY AND THE STAGE

Chapter 6: Peter Hyland. Stage and Page: Early Modern Performance at London’s Rose Theatre
Chapter 7: Roger Long. Friend or Foe? Technology and its Impact on Javanese Wayang Kulit: A Revisitation
Chapter 8: James A. Matisoff. Syntactic Parallelism and Morphological Elaboration in Lahu Religious Poetry

PART THREE: AN AFFAIR WITH POTS

Chapter 9: John & Jean McKinnon. Down to Earth in Wusi (Vanuatu): Women Potters and the Legacy of Lapita
Chapter 10: Paul Geraghty. The Stone and the Paddle: Taraivini Wati and the Stranger Potters of Nasilai

PART FOUR: THE LOVE OF FINE CRAFTSMANSHIP

Chapter 11: Tarun Chhabra. A Unique South Indian Tradition: Toda Dress and
Embroidery Patterns
Chapter 12: Tan Chee-Beng. Skilled Craftsmanship from Interior Borneo: Badeng Traditional Crafts and their Future
Chapter 13: Shuichi Nagata. The Commercialization of a Native American Craft:
The Hopi Example

PART FIVE: THE CONCERN FOR WOMEN’S ISSUES-WORLDWIDE

Chapter 14: Mary T. Howard. Body Modification in Africa and America: A Comparison
Chapter 15: Richard Moore. Yama no Kami Kou: The Mountain Goddess Fertility Association in Northeast Japan
Chapter 16: Kim Myung-hye. Korean Sex Slaves Under Japanese Occupation

PART SIX: THE INTEREST IN COMPARATIVE HEALING PRACTICES

Chapter 17: Deborah S. Akers. Faith Healers in the Himalayas: The Jhankri of Nepal
Chapter 18: Pudarno Binchin. The Interpretation of Sickness and the Conduct of Healing in Traditional Brunei Dusun Society

PART SEVEN: A FASCINATION FOR RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY, MYTH AND RITUAL

Chapter 19: Paul Cohen. In the Footsteps of the Buddha: Mobility and Residence in the Upper Mekong
Chapter 20: Gregory Forth. Transformation and Replacement: A Comparison of Some Indonesian Bird Myths
Chapter 21: Donald Tayler. Searching for Lost Worlds: El Dorado and the Sacred
Mountain of the Ika of Northeast Colombia

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