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Culture and History in the Pacific is a collection of essays originally published in 1990. The texts explore from different perspectives the question of culture as a repository of historical information. They also address broader questions of anthropological writing at the time, such as the relationship between anthropologists' representations and local conceptions.
This republication aims to make the book accessible to a wider audience, and in the region it discusses, Oceania. A new introductory essay has been included to contextualize the volume in relation to its historical setting, the end of the Cold War era, and to the present study of the Pacific and indigenous scholarship.
The authors of Culture and History in the Pacific include prominent anthropologists of the Pacific, some of whom – Roger Keesing and Marilyn Strathern, to name but two – have also been influential in the anthropology of the late 20th and early 21st century in general.

Violence in modern Africa is still often explained in the West as a result of persistent primitivism and tribalism in African cultures. This culturalist view of African conflict appears in some scholarly work as well as in much of popular culture, including the media. What such analysis misses is that European colonialism in Africa fostered non-modern, ethnically based societies through indirect rule, and post-colonial governments have largely relied on versions of the colonial system to maintain their power. Moreover, interventions by the West in post-colonial African affairs have only infrequently helped to reduce ethnic tensions. More commonly, Western intervention has been ineffective and selfserving and Western governments have been able to obscure their actions because of popular ignorance of African culture and history. African tribalism is real, but it is much more a result of modern historical events than age-old hatreds. Greater understanding of African history and culture and greater care for Africa can result in reduction of ethnic violence.