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International audience ; This article presents ethnographic material and anthropological insights on the development of Islam in Vanuatu, where it has been studied even less than elsewhere in Melanesia. In Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, where dominant collective identities are firmly rooted in Christianity, converts to Islam remain few in number. In Vanuatu the Church authorities have nonetheless felt the need to reassert Christianity's hegemony nationally as a counter to the supposed advance of Islam. Also kastom, a widespread term for a specific local traditional heritage and an original way of living, has once again been invoked in recent debates on the politics of religious identity in Vanuatu. The aim of this article is to describe the conflicting arguments that people use in conceptualizing the moral or political aspects that show Islam to be culturally compatible or otherwise with Christianity and kastom on the island. I will examine how categories of continuity and change come to reinforce ideological discourses on the ability of Islam to conform to past Melanesian experiments in indigenizing foreign cultural influences. The case of Tanna in the south of Vanuatu will receive special attention. On this island, millenarian visions of a New World Order compete with local Muslims' interpretations of Islam. Older kastom social movements, having already experimented with ruptures from Christianity, like the famous John Frum movement, also participate in the construction of discourses on the continuity between kastom and Islam.

International audience ; This article presents ethnographic material and anthropological insights on the development of Islam in Vanuatu, where it has been studied even less than elsewhere in Melanesia. In Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, where dominant collective identities are firmly rooted in Christianity, converts to Islam remain few in number. In Vanuatu the Church authorities have nonetheless felt the need to reassert Christianity's hegemony nationally as a counter to the supposed advance of Islam. Also kastom, a widespread term for a specific local traditional heritage and an original way of living, has once again been invoked in recent debates on the politics of religious identity in Vanuatu. The aim of this article is to describe the conflicting arguments that people use in conceptualizing the moral or political aspects that show Islam to be culturally compatible or otherwise with Christianity and kastom on the island. I will examine how categories of continuity and change come to reinforce ideological discourses on the ability of Islam to conform to past Melanesian experiments in indigenizing foreign cultural influences. The case of Tanna in the south of Vanuatu will receive special attention. On this island, millenarian visions of a New World Order compete with local Muslims' interpretations of Islam. Older kastom social movements, having already experimented with ruptures from Christianity, like the famous John Frum movement, also participate in the construction of discourses on the continuity between kastom and Islam.

International audience ; As religious belief, cultural construct and social world, Islam has long remained unknown to many South Pacific societies. In densely populated Melanesian countries like Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, that have, since their independence, concentrated on constructing national identities firmly rooted in Christianity, the introduction of Islam needs be studied as a specifically postcolonial phenomenon. In Vanuatu, after several decades of sovereignty, the political and religious authorities of this country have nonetheless felt the need to reassert Christianity's hegemony at the national level. However, due to the magnitude of the cultural consequences of globalization and secularization, the people of Vanuatu are going through social upheavals which are coupled with a moral crisis among the traditional Christian denominations, confronted by the growing success of neo-Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Converting to Islam, in such a context, is a religious innovation of special interest for social science specialists since, in Vanuatu, this study involves debates on the politics of culture and identity. What is at stake in this issue is the ability of Islam to conform, or not, to past Melanesian experiences in indigenizing foreign cultural influences. The aim of this article is to analyze the reasons for adhering to this new offer on the « religion market », in certain contexts, and in particular, on the island of Tanna, despite a deep mistrust of Islam. ; L'islam comme croyance religieuse, imaginaire culturel et monde social est longtemps resté ignoré des sociétés du Pacifique sud. Dans des pays densément peuplés de la Mélanésie, tels que la Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée, les îles Salomon ou Vanuatu, s'employant depuis leur indépendance à construire des identités nationales fermement ancrées dans le christianisme, l'introduction de l'islam nécessite d'être étudiée en tant que phénomène strictement postcolonial. À Vanuatu, après plusieurs décennies de souveraineté, les ...

International audience ; As religious belief, cultural construct and social world, Islam has long remained unknown to many South Pacific societies. In densely populated Melanesian countries like Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, that have, since their independence, concentrated on constructing national identities firmly rooted in Christianity, the introduction of Islam needs be studied as a specifically postcolonial phenomenon. In Vanuatu, after several decades of sovereignty, the political and religious authorities of this country have nonetheless felt the need to reassert Christianity's hegemony at the national level. However, due to the magnitude of the cultural consequences of globalization and secularization, the people of Vanuatu are going through social upheavals which are coupled with a moral crisis among the traditional Christian denominations, confronted by the growing success of neo-Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Converting to Islam, in such a context, is a religious innovation of special interest for social science specialists since, in Vanuatu, this study involves debates on the politics of culture and identity. What is at stake in this issue is the ability of Islam to conform, or not, to past Melanesian experiences in indigenizing foreign cultural influences. The aim of this article is to analyze the reasons for adhering to this new offer on the « religion market », in certain contexts, and in particular, on the island of Tanna, despite a deep mistrust of Islam. ; L'islam comme croyance religieuse, imaginaire culturel et monde social est longtemps resté ignoré des sociétés du Pacifique sud. Dans des pays densément peuplés de la Mélanésie, tels que la Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée, les îles Salomon ou Vanuatu, s'employant depuis leur indépendance à construire des identités nationales fermement ancrées dans le christianisme, l'introduction de l'islam nécessite d'être étudiée en tant que phénomène strictement postcolonial. À Vanuatu, après plusieurs décennies de souveraineté, les ...

International audience ; Nearly twenty years after the publication of Chiefs Today: Traditional Pacific Leadership and the Colonial State, edited by Lamont Lindstrom and Geoffrey White (1997), this article extends and updates coverage of earlier discussions concerning local and national codifications of authority in the Pacific region and the relation of contemporary "chiefs" and other leaders with state bureaucracies. I address this topic through an analysis of the challenges faced in Vanuatu, since independence, by the attempt to design bureaucratic structures that build on indigenous systems of authority. Looking at the historical and contemporary situation of the Tannese society in the south of the archipelago, I observe the political history and transformation of chiefly status on Tanna, and how local actors in this island have manipulated leadership possibilities (and other aspects of local kastom), partly by drawing on outside resources and connections. This case study also connects with other issues including the ongoing transformation of the roles of local political leaders, global connections linking small Pacific Islands with metropolitan actors, and disputes over cultural property and cultural appropriation.

International audience ; Nearly twenty years after the publication of Chiefs Today: Traditional Pacific Leadership and the Colonial State, edited by Lamont Lindstrom and Geoffrey White (1997), this article extends and updates coverage of earlier discussions concerning local and national codifications of authority in the Pacific region and the relation of contemporary "chiefs" and other leaders with state bureaucracies. I address this topic through an analysis of the challenges faced in Vanuatu, since independence, by the attempt to design bureaucratic structures that build on indigenous systems of authority. Looking at the historical and contemporary situation of the Tannese society in the south of the archipelago, I observe the political history and transformation of chiefly status on Tanna, and how local actors in this island have manipulated leadership possibilities (and other aspects of local kastom), partly by drawing on outside resources and connections. This case study also connects with other issues including the ongoing transformation of the roles of local political leaders, global connections linking small Pacific Islands with metropolitan actors, and disputes over cultural property and cultural appropriation.

International audience ; Repeated signs of a large-scale rebellion on the South Pacifie island of Tanna (Vanuatu) appeared in 1941. Civil disobedience was expressed through reference to a prophetic figure namedJohn Frum. In order to repress this politico-religious movement, categorized later as a cargo cult in the anthropological literature, the British administration accumulated thousands of pages of surveillance notes, reports and commentaries. This article proposes an introduction to the existence of these documents known as the 'John Frum files', which were classified as confidential until the last few years. The presentation of this body of documentation follows Ann Stoler's injunction to study colonial archives not only as data sources but also as an ethnographie subject in its own right. An ethnographie overview of the John Frum files will contribute to recent debates among anthropologists about 'cargo cult archives' and how their colonial authors in Tanna and John Frum cultists were inextricably bound up with one another.

International audience ; Repeated signs of a large-scale rebellion on the South Pacifie island of Tanna (Vanuatu) appeared in 1941. Civil disobedience was expressed through reference to a prophetic figure namedJohn Frum. In order to repress this politico-religious movement, categorized later as a cargo cult in the anthropological literature, the British administration accumulated thousands of pages of surveillance notes, reports and commentaries. This article proposes an introduction to the existence of these documents known as the 'John Frum files', which were classified as confidential until the last few years. The presentation of this body of documentation follows Ann Stoler's injunction to study colonial archives not only as data sources but also as an ethnographie subject in its own right. An ethnographie overview of the John Frum files will contribute to recent debates among anthropologists about 'cargo cult archives' and how their colonial authors in Tanna and John Frum cultists were inextricably bound up with one another.

International audience ; Organisées annuellement depuis 1957, les cérémonies John Frum du 15 février à Tanna s'apparentent à une tradition inventée, conçue comme telle par ses initiateurs, puis revendiquée par leurs continuateurs comme l'emblème d'un « sauvetage de leur coutume ». Empruntant initialement la forme d'une ritualisation d'expressions culturelles exogènes en vue de légitimer des orientations spirituelles inédites, cet événement revêtit dans la période post-coloniale une dimension plus politique et sécularisée. L'analyse de cette transition historique doit servir à replacer celle-ci dans un débat anthropologique plus large sur les questions de continuité culturelle et d'indigénisation de la modernité.