1981a Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Conference: "Motivation and Strategy in the Exchange of Small, Stateless Societies". New York, N. Y.

1981b "Kitoums and Capital(Volume I): An Ethnographic Fact and its Relation to Some Current Issues in Social Theory. Anthropology Department, University of Chicago.

1981c "Second Conference on the Kula: History and Internal Exchange" Convener: University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va. Presented: (1) "The Transformation of Muyuw into Woodlark: The Problem of the 19th Century in the Kula Ring."  (2) "(Notes) Towards a Comparison of Trobriand and Muyuw Mortuary Rites: Winelawoulo : Lo'un :: Trobriands : Muyuw?"

1982a "Work and the Metamorphosis of Labour in Muyuw Kinship." Paper presented to Departments of Anthropology at London School of Economics and Political Science, U.K., and University of Copenhagen, Denmark; and Societé des Océanistes, Musee de L'Homme, Paris.

1982b "The Transformation of Muyuw into Woodlark; Or, What is Tradition? Presented to Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Papua New Guinea, PNG.

1983c First International Conference on Ethnoastronomy: Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World, Washington, D.C. Presented: "Reflections on Muyuw Spatial and Temporal Notions."

1983d "Muyuw Sorcery: What Might we Learn from the European Historians?" Presented to Departments of Anthropology, University of Chicago, &  Northern Illinois University.

1990(1) "The Dialectics of Creation: An Anthropological View from the Western Pacific." (2) "Social Structure and Mythology: Placing the Structural Analysis of Myth" for NEH Institute, SONGS OF THE MUSES: Approaches to Classical Mythology, University of Maryland.

1991a Conference Paper: "THINKING ABOUT REGIONAL SYSTEMS MODELS: From the Kula Ring for conference, "NOT IN ISOLATION: REGIONAL STUDIES IN MELANESIAN ANTHROPOLOGY." Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Il.

1991b "THE `MATERIAL' AND THE `SPIRITUAL' IN THE GIFT: Models of Exchange from the Kula, India, and 19th Century United States Culture."  Lecture for the Academia Sinica, Institute of Ethnology, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan, June 10. Department of Anthropology, RSPS, Australian National University, July 3. Variant of this paper delivered at the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales,

1991c "RUNNING AMOK IN MUYUW: The Organization of Consciousness in a Regional Setting."  Lecture for Institute of Sociology and Anthropology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan,  Department of Anthropology, RSPS, Australian National University,  Department of Anthropology, Sydney University. École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales.

1991d "THINKING ABOUT REGIONAL SYSTEMS MODELS: From the Kula Ring. Lecture delivered at Institute for Ethnology, Yunnan Nationalities Institute, Kunming, Peoples Republic of China,  Variant of this paper entitled "REGIONAL SYSTEMS AND ANALYTICAL MODELS: Reflections on the Kula, Language, and Society" delivered at the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales,

1991e "(Notes On The) REPRESENTATION AND EXPERIENCE IN WESTERN AND KULA EXCHANGE SPHERES, OR BILLY" for "Paul Bohannon's Exchange Spheres 30 Years Later," American Anthropological Association Session, November, Chicago Illinois.

1991f  "SUBCLANS, KITOUMS AND ENCOMPASSED CONTRARIES: Classificatory Devices or Generative Principles? École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales,

1991g "WHAT GOOD ARE ELECTIONS?  An Anthropological Analysis of American Elections." École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales.

1992    "ON THE ORDER OF CHAOS: Non-Linear Analogical Thought and Practice," American Anthropological Association Session; co-organizer; paper presented entitled "The Differentiation of Difference: Double Transformations Across Massim Societies."

1996    “WHAT GOOD ARE ELECTIONS?  An Anthropological Analysis of American Elections." Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Papua New Guinea

1997a,b “APATCHY KNOWLEDGE: Forging some ties between symbolic anthropology and environmental sciences.” Delivered in several versions to Departments of Anthropology and Sociology at Longwood College and the University of Alabama at Birmingham

1997c “A STRANGER’S VIEW OF BIHAR: MORE THAN A POETRY OF PROPERTIES: Rethinking religion and production.”  For the Conference, Bihar in the World and the World in Bihar. 12/15- 21, 1997. Patna, Bihar.

1998a “The Kula (1973-1996), Exchange Theory and Vertical Integration among Northern Kula Ring Island Cultures,” For the Departamento De Ciencias Sociales, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru

1998bcd AWHAT GOOD ARE ELECTIONS?  An Anthropological Analysis of American Elections." For the Departamento De Ciencias Sociales, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, Lima Peru and to American Studies Program, National University of Singapore

1998ef  “CALOPHYLLUM sp. Notes on the Traditional (medicinal and boat construction) and

            Contemporary (Logging--and medicinal) use of tree species in the genus Calophyllum from the Pacific to South Asia and Beyond.” Written first for 1998  SOUTHEAST REGIONAL CONFERENCE, ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN STUDIES, January; rewritten for  Panel  5, >Forest History of Melanesia,= Solomon  Islands College of Advanced Education and 12th Pacific History Association Conference, Solomon Islands College of Higher Education, Siche, Kukum Campus,  Honiara, Solomon Islands June 22nd to 26th 1998

1998    GARDENS, TREES AND BOATS: How the properties of trees are used to make productive and regional relations in the Kula Ring of Papua New Guinea@ Presented to Southeast Asian Studies Program, National University of Singapore and Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

1999a  “FROM REGIONAL RELATIONS TO ETHNIC GROUPS? The transformation of value relations to property claims  in the Kula Ring  of Papua New Guinea.” for Fourth Senior National Seminar on Sociology and Anthropology,  in Kunming, Yunnan Province, Peoples Republic of China.

1999b “CURRENTS AND LAPITA EDDIES: Locating Northern Massim Landscapes from Archaeological and Ethnobotanical Research” with Dr Simon H Bickler, Pacific Science Congress, Sydney Australia.

1999c “ADVENTURES DOING ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH IN THE KULA RING: Seeing Muyuw Trees, Forests And Gardens” for the Resource Management in Asia Pacific, Department of Human Geography, Division of Society and Environment, Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies, Australian National University.

1999d “NORTHERN MASSIM CALENDRICS ONCE MORE: Gell’s Model, New Facts, and Complexity versus History for Considering Social Order.” For Anthropology Seminar, Department of Anthropology,  Division of Society and Environment Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies,  & Department of Archaeology & Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, Australian National University

1999e “Ethnobotany in the Northern Kula Ring, Milne Bay Province,” lecture to the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Papua New Guinea.

2000a "On the Abstraction of Motive and Reduction of Complexity. Themes in the History of the Church, 1847-1999, on Muyuw, Woodlark Island, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea" in the Conference  Christianisation of Oceanian societies  - II , École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales (EHESS), Paris , France

2000b ANOTES ON BOATS FOR THE EASTERN HALF OF THE KULA RING: The Ethnobotany of Their Construction and Regional Relations.  And Reflections on the Modes of Thought That Characterize Their Forms and Handling. (With Slides)@ University of Kent and ERASME, EHESS, Paris, France; Center of research and documentation on Oceania,  Marseille, France.

2000c “MEDIATING RELATIONS: Calendars and Trees as Means of Organizing the Reciprocity of Difference in the Kula Ring”  EHESS, Paris, France.

2000d  “REFLECTIONS ON ‘SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT' - Traditional Production Patterns in the Indo-Pacific Region, and Capitalism” paper presented for the panel “Economic globalization/unification, regional development pattern, and sustainable development,” at The Sixth national symposium of the Chinese Anthropology Society, Xiamen, China, 18-22  July, 2000

2001    1)"Experiments in the Biochemistry of Kula Ring and Muyuw Ethnobotany" UVa Department of Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Seminar. March

            2) “ON THE IDEA OF BOATS: FOR THE EASTERN HALF OF THE KULA RING A Discussion of The Ethnobotany of Their Construction and Regional Relations; And Reflections on Indigenous Modeling Procedures” Presented to Departments of Anthropology of Oceanic scholars at San Sebastian and Madrid, Spain, and the Department of Anthropology, University of Cambridge.

            3) “What Good Are Elections,” for UVa’s Engaging the Mind series at two locations in Virginia Beach, Va.

            4) A version of my boat paper/presentation to the UVa alumni group in Hong Kong.

2002 “ON THE IDEA OF BOATS Their Ethnobotany,  Implications for Regional Relations and Reflections on Indigenous Modeling Procedures in the Eastern half of the Kula Ring” (With Slides) This lecture, given in new guises over the past several years, was produced again at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, at the Australian National University in the RSPAS Resource Management in the Asia Pacific, and at the University of Papua New Guinea

2003 “TO GODS « GIFTS TO MEN: Northern Massim Megaliths in the Context of Pacific History and Sociality,” Dr. Simon Bickler, a UVa. Archaeology Ph.D is the co-author.  This paper was presented  to World Archaeological Congress (5) in Washington DC in June.

2004 Lectures in Taiwan:

a. February 9, 2004: “REFLECTIONS ON THE END OF THE AUSTRONESIAN EXPANSION” To the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.   

            b. February 20, 2004 (93?) “MELANESIAN PATCHY LANDSCAPES A Developed Pattern of the Indo-Pacific World?” A lecture and ppt presentation for and at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, Taipei, Taiwan.

            c. March 4 2004:  “TREES, MEADOWS, AND THE 1997-98 EL NIÑO Ethnobotany in the Kula Ring of Papua New Guinea” A lecture and ppt presentation to Institute of Anthropology and Department of Human Development Tzu-chi University, Hua lien, Taiwan.

d. March 10 “MUYUW LANDSCAPES: Their Content and Aesthetic Forms…in Comparative Perspective” A lecture and ppt presentation for Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing Hua University.  This paper laid out for the attending anthropologists how I think the socially created environment of the South Pacific region is relative to the continental and Asian environment from which the Austronesian expansion started.

e. March 12 “WHOLES FROM PARTS In the absence of Exchange? Contemporary Exchange Theory and the Contemporary World”[DRAFT 1] Lecture & ppt presentation at Department of Anthropology, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Lectures in France, École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales:

a. May 11, 2004 “KNOTS IN A CULTURE OF TYING: the conditions of connection.” Iteanu Seminar, the remaining Dumont equip ERASME devoted to the anthropological heritage of Luis Dumont.  This was the first draft of the fifth chapter of my book as a lecture & ppt presentation. In the course of creating this chapter I became convinced that strings, knots, and the play of both, are for Muyuw culture, and of necessity much of the cultures in the Indo-Pacific region, their formal mathematics.

b. March 18: “WHOLES FROM PARTS In the absence of Exchange? Contemporary Exchange Theory and the Contemporary World” [DRAFT 2] Lecture & ppt presentation for the interdisciplinary seminar organized by Stéphane Breton, Vincent Descombs and others

c. May 21 “MUYUW LANDSCAPES Their Content and Aesthetic Forms….in Comparative Perspective” CREDO(Centre for Research and Documentation on Oceania) and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Provence, Marseilles, France.  

d. May 25 GIFTS TO GODS  GIFTS TO MEN Megaliths and Exchange in the Context of Kula Ring and Polynesian History and Society;  Or REFLECTIONS ON THE END OF THE AUSTRONESIAN EXPANSION. The last of the 4 required EHESS appearances. It was presented to a set of students of Oceania and then circulated to interested scholars at the University of Lund in Sweden.  

2004   “What Good Are Elections” lecture to UVa Alumni group in Raleigh, North Carolina.

2005  “ABOUT A PAST OR A FUTURE?  Reflections on 15 Years of Environmental Research in Milne Bay Province.” Lecture presented to Melanesian and Pacific Studies Seminar, University of Papua New Guinea, Boroko, Papua New Guinea, June 29.

2006    a. “FROM ECOLOGICAL PATCHES TO CYBERNETIC RELATIONS Outrigger Sailing Craft in the Eastern Kula Ring, PAPUA NEW GUINEA” paper presented for Session 8: TEK, Ethnobotany Society of Ethnobiology Ethnobiology Conference, March 8-10, Penn State U.

            b. “ENTWINING VALUES: The Embarrassment of String Figures along the Eastern Half of the Kula Ring” for Session 2: Configurations, for the University of Manchester Conference (December 2-4) “Living Paradoxes: Moral Reasoning and Social Change in the Asia-Pacific.”

c. “ALTERNATIVE CENTERING The Kula Ring as a Melanesian Example-- Beyond the Center-Periphery Hierarchies of the Asias”  Conference Paper for "Imagined Centers and Diverse Peripheries" and Academia Sinica conference (December 11-13) sponsored by Institute of ethnology, Academia Sinica, Graduate Institute of Anthropology, National Tsinghua University and Institute of Austronesian Studies, National Taitung University.

d. “Fifteen Years Among the Scientists: A Social Anthropologist Reflecting on his Encounter with the Natural Sciences and Mathematics.” Conference paper for Conference “Challenges to Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research,” December 14-16, Taipei, Taiwan Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica

            e. The Two Anthropologies: Holism and a Lot about a Little” 人类学的两种取径: 整體主義和沙            中世界 . At the Maritime Museum in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, PRC. Powerpoint prepared in             Chinese.

2007. The Beijing Lectures: a. “CHAOS AND CONTRADICTIONS: Reflections on Anthropological Borrowing;” b.“APPREHENDING THE MATERIAL AND SOCIAL WORLD: Rethinking ‘Religion’ and ‘Production’ Along the South Side of Monsoon Asia;” c. “THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CYBERNETIC STRUCTURES: Wind And Water Ideas In The Outrigger Sailing Craft Of The Eastern Kula Ring.”  Delivered to members of the Departments of Anthropology and Sociology at Peking University and the Department of Ethnology at 中央民族大学（Zhong Yang Minzu Da Xue）January 2, 4 and 8. Powerpoint prepared in Chinese.

            c. Conference paper “CHAOS AND LARGER SYSTEMS: From an Island World, the Questions             of Scale,” a paper and ppt contrasting cultures of the South Pacific with China as a foreign             participant in the Symposium: The Relationships between Southeastern and Southwestern             Anthropological Regions in China”, and the Sixth Field Workshop in Anthropology held in             Quanzhou, Fujian Province, PRC, July 12-25, 2008.

d. “The De-valuing of Circulation and Contradictions in the Rise of Property on Woodlark Island, formerly Muyuw, Milne Bay Provence, Papua New Guinea” for the ASA panel ‘Performance and vitality: circulation and the value of culture’, Auckland, New Zealand, 12/9/08.

2009   

a. “‘GO ASK THEM WHAT THE NAMES ARE!’ Structuring Knowledge and Production in the Calendrical Systems of the Northern Arc of the Kula Ring,” paper presented at A Working Conference On Ecology and Time Systems in Australasia and the Americas: New approaches to value systems and calendrical transformations across the Pacific Rim, University of Virginia, February 1-4.

b. “MATERIALIZING VALUES: Outrigger Structures on the Eastern Half of the Kula Ring” or the Working Session: Dumont in the Pacific, Association of Social Anthropology in Oceania annual meetings, 2009 Santa Cruz, Ca. Draft I.

c. “THE KULA: As a Set of Sacrificial Relations/Scenes and Relations from the Northeast Corner of the Kula Ring, 1973-2007; a lecture in  ANT 585-02P/[PSYCH 770R]:  Culture and Cognition (Culture Club): Selfishness, Altruism, Reciprocity: The Origins of Sociality for the Center on Culture, Brain and Society, Emory University, April 14.

            d. “HOUNDED BY CULTURE: Where is the ethnological tradition, the analysis of particulars in             the guise of high theory, for the 21^st century?” Conference paper for Re-Thinking Ethnology             Working Conference, June 5 and 6, Department of Anthropology, University College London.

(NOTES FOR) MATERIALIZING VALUES: Outrigger Structures on the Eastern Half of the Kula Ring For La Séminaire International « La culture matérielle » (musée du quai Branly, EHESS, Paris I, Paris X, J.-P. Demoule, P. Lemonnier, M. Bailly, Ph. Boissinot, L. Coupaye, L. Douny, P. Pion, P. Ruby), and Séminaire « Religions de l’Océanie » (EPHE, A. Iteanu) June 9, 2009. Draft II.

            e. “(NOTES FOR)  MATERIALIZING VALUES: Outrigger Structures on the Eastern Half of the             Kula Ring. THE DATA” ANTHROPOLOGY SEMINAR For the Department of Anthropology,             RSPAS, Australian National University.  August 19, 2009. Draft III.

            f. “CONFIGURED DISCONTINUITIES: Outrigger Structures on the Eastern Half of the Kula             Ring,” a paper and ppt presentation for the American Anthropological Association Panel,             “Technologies of Anticipation and Economies of Time: Groundwork for an Anthropology of the             Future,”  the AAA 2009 Annual Meetings, in Philadelphia, PA.

2010   

“PROLEGOMENON TO THE ANALYSIS OF NECESSITIES: A Comparative Analysis of Logic in the Labor Processes across the Indo-Pacific” for the March 4-5 workshop in Singapore, “Empire, Civilisation and the Anthropology of China,”organised by Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

“GEOMETRIES OF MOTION: Trees and the Boats of the Eastern Kula Ring—A Conclusion?”  For the Departments of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo and University of Helsinki. November.

SACRIFICE AND DESTRUCTION: On some problems in the generation of sociality.  Lecture for the Department of  Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. November.

2011

“Sequencing Discontinuity: Temporalizing Variation Across the Northern Arc of the Kula Ring” 2nd International Workshop on Ecology and Time Systems in Australasia And the Americas: New Approaches to Value Systems and Calendrical Transformations across the Pacific Rim (12-14 January, 2011, Seminar Room 102, Guoguan Building C, Beijing University, Beijing, POC), January 12

 

“The Question of Time, Sago and the Southern Arc of Human Culture in the Pacific: In Contrast to the Northern Arc of Irrigated Rice Agriculture,”for “Culture, Climate, Environment and Their Transformation: Southeast and Southwest China (from 6000 BCE to the Present),” a provisional gathering for prospective collaborative research in the UVa, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Beijing University consortium, (March 9-11, 2011, Hong Kong). March 9.

 

A TIME QUESTION: Sago & the Southern Arc of Human Culture in the Pacific…In Contrast to the Northern Arc of Irrigated Rice Agriculture. El Colegio de México, July 18, 2011.

“Seasonal environmental practices and climate fluctuations in Melanesia. An assessment of small island societies in Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu,” with Carlos MONDRAGÓN for the Indigenous Peoples, Marginalized Populations and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Traditional Knowledge (19 – 21 July 2011, Mexico City, Mexico), July 21 [A reworked version of the March 9 Hong Kong Presentation.]

 

“The problem of ULTIMATE VALUES, And the Future of Anthropology in Dumont’s Footsteps, paper and ppt presentation for the 2011, Centenaire de Louis Dumont. Diversité des sociétés et Universalisme idéologique. Paris, France, September 22-24, 2011.

 

“A LUCKY LINK,” for AAA session, “From Capital To Chaos: Honoring Fred Damon,” Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association November 17, 2011

 

2012   

CALENDRICAL KNOWLEDGE: In the Organization of Times in the Eastern Kula Ring, INTERNATIONALCOLLOQUIUM: Time and Complexity,  Calendars of the World. Tuesday 9th--‐Thursday 11th, October 2012 National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City.

“THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE DEAD: The place of destruction in the organization of social life, which means hierarchy,” for the panel Hierarchy, Value, and the Value of Hierarchy organized by Naomi Haynes, (U. C. San Diego) and Jason Hickel, London School of Economics, American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, San Francisco 2012.

 

2013

“About The Deep History of East Asia and the South Pacific: Towards a Research Plan”, Public lecture at Quanzhou Maritime Museum to about 35 people, March 10, 2013.

 

ON THE PLACE OF DESTRUCTION IN THE ORGANIZATION OF SOCIAL LIFE: Turning The Bad And The Dead Into The Good,” For the Conference "Sacrifice in different civilizations," Sponsored by Anren Musuem Town, Southwestern University, and PKU's Anthropological Society, April 22& 23 in An'ren Musuem Town in Chengdu, Sichuan.

 

 

“ABOUT KNOWING: Research, Museums and the Modern World,” ppt presentation for School of Ethnological Studies at Southwest University for Nationalities, Chengdu, Sichuan Province in post-conference discussion of museums, April 25-28, 2013.   

 

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE DEAD The place of destruction in the organization of social life, which means hierarchy. Presented to and undergraduate class the Institute of Ethnology, “Trends in Anthropological Thought,” National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, June 6, 2013.

 

2014    “DISTRIBUTIVE STRUCTURES: Fashioning Communicative Orders Across the East Asian Austronesian Divide” 16 May 2014, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the International Workshop on “Communication and Isolation (交流与封闭)” in Fujian Province’s Quanzhou Maritime Museum, 23 May, 2014.

 

2015    “WEEDS AND MANICURED LANDSCAPES: Reflecting across the decades on knowledge and ecological knowledge” for CROSS-CULTURAL EXCHANGE? Experts, collaboration, and knowledge forms in Pacific ecology. Organizers: Carlos Mondragón (Universidad Autónoma Nacional de México) James Leach (CREDO), European Society for Oceanists, 10th Conference, “europe and the pacific 24 - 27 June 2015, Brussels, Belgium. Paper and PowerPoint Presentation.

 

            “材 [Cái],参[曑, Cān) 和 [hé] 平衡 [Píng héng](?) THINKING THROUGH TRANSFORMATIONS ACROSS THE EAST ASIAN AUSTRONESIAN DIVIDE” Department of Anthropology, Nan Jing University, Nan Jing, July 6, 2015. Paper and PowerPoint Presentation.

“ABOUT ENCOMPASSED CONTRARIES: Considering Invariants in Cultural Orders?” Department of Anthropology, East China Normal University, Shanghai, July 8, 2015. Paper and PowerPoint Presentation.

“‘MALINOWKSI’ FROM A DISTANCE: CONTEXTS FOR KNOWING: Reflections on Malinowski’s Legacies from Another Corner of the Kula Ring and World,” for the conference “MALINOWSKI’S LEGACY,” Wanigili Centre, Alotau, Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea, August 11-14, 2015, 8/11/15.

 

“‘天’/ ‘地’: Updates on a long-term research endeavor,” Powerpoint presentation for East Asia Committee Beginning-of-the-year Reception.

 

2016    “‘MALINOWKSI’ FROM A DISTANCE: CONTEXTS FOR KNOWING: Reflections On             Malinowski’s Legacies from Another Corner of the Kula Ring and World” at “The Malinowski’s             Legacy Redux," Association of Social Anthropology of Oceania, San Diego, CA, 2/9-13/16.

 

‘MALINOWSKI’ FROM A DISTANCE: CONTEXTS FOR KNOWING Reflections On Malinowski’s Legacies from Another Corner of the Kula Ring and World (讲座一

远观马林诺夫斯基的遗产——来自库拉圈的另一端及世界范围的反思) June 6, 2016.

First of three lectures at 西南民族大学, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, PRC.

 

“WHAT GOOD ARE ELECTIONS” AND THE 2016 US PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: On the Problem of Social Order in Contemporary Society’ (讲座二 选举何益？ ——当代社会的社会秩序问题与2016年的美国总统竞) June 8, 2016. Second of three lectures at西南民族大学. This lecture was also presented on June 22, 2016, to the public in the Quanzhou Maritime Museum, Quanzhou, Fujian Province, PRC.

 

“ACROSS THE EAST ASIAN AUSTRONESIAN DIVIDE: Notes towards the comparative astronomy in an Austronesian Society and ‘China.’” (讲座三 东亚南岛语系内的转型 ——关于南岛社会与“中国”的占星术之比较), June 14, 2016. Third of three lectures at 西南民族大学, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, PRC.

 

“FROM THE EMPEROR’S HAT TO THE BIG MAN’S COMB TRANSFORMATIONS Traditions of ordered hierarchy across the East Asian Austronesian Divide,” For ‘Hierarchy and Egalitarianism In Austronesia/Oceania,’ 12/2-12/3/2016 Ting Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. With David Gibeault.

2017   

“WHAT HAVE I DONE(!?): My Research on Muyuw, Woodlark Island, Milne Bay Province, 1973-2017. About the Privilege Of Sharing Life with The Kula.” Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Papua New Guinea,  4pm, Thursday, May 25, 2017. A reprise of my work in Muyuw since it started in 1973. Powerpoint presentation.

THE WORLD IN THE KULA RING AND THE KULA RING IN THE WORLD
Reflections on My Years in Milne Bay Province, PNG, 1973-2017 May 30, 2017 MASSIM MUSEUM AND CULTURAL CENTRE, Massim Cultural Foundation Inc., Alotau, Milne Bay Province, PNG. 4-6pm. This was the inaugural lecture for the new museum in the Provincial capital of Milne Bay Province. Powerpoint presentation.

KULA RING ASTRONOMY, SKY/EARTH RELATIONS: Traces of an East Asian Heritage? Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney, July 27, 2017, 3-5pm. This presentation was the first synthesis developed from my research on Muyuw in June of this year. Powerpoint presentation.

A CRITIQUE: From The 1991 Plan (environmental research) for TREES, KNOTS AND OUTRIGGERS Environmental Knowledge in the Northeast Kula Ring. And the results so far. Milgate Room, A.D. Hope Building. Department of Anthropology, Australian National University. Friday 4 August 2017, 3:00-5pm. Powerpoint presentation.

REGIONAL SYSTEMS AND PHASE CHANGES: Anomalies and Confusions, Iwa Island In The Case Of The Northern Side Of The Kula Ring And Other Points In The Ethnographic World. FACULTY OF SCIENCE, School of Geography, University of Melbourne: Tuesday 8 August, 2017 Time: 1.00pm Venue: Lecture Theatre 1, Basement level, 221 Bouverie St, Carlton. First draft of a new project. Powerpoint presentation.

 

A CRITIQUE: From The 1991 Plan (environmental research) for TREES, KNOTS AND OUTRIGGERS Environmental Knowledge in the Northeast Kula Ring And the results so far. Department of Anthropology University of Auckland, Thursday, 4 Pm, August 10, 2017. Although a reworking of the Canberra presentation, this version emphasized different facets of my book and its aftermath. Lecture by Powerpoint presentation.

“FROM OUTRIGGER CANOES TO FENGSHUI: Next Steps in a Comparative Project to Understand Historical and Structural Relationships Across the Indo-Pacific.” Department of Anthropology Room 8417 Sewell Social Sciences, University of Wisconsin. October 2, 2017. Lecture by Powerpoint presentation.

           

            “From Stone and Water to Soils and Starch: Horticultural Transformation during the Holocene   Settlement of the Pacific.” With Simon Bickler, presentation for THE PACIFIC LANDSCAPES            SESSIONS, Thursday, November 30, 2017 American Anthropological Association Annual         Meetings, Washington DC.

2018    "CHINESE ASTRONOMICAL SYSTEMS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC? Conforming Earth to Heaven through the reaches of the Austronesian Expansion." East Asia Center Speaker Series  Friday, February 2^nd.

"CHINESE ASTRONOMICAL SYSTEMS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC? Conforming Earth to Heaven through the reaches of the Austronesian Expansion." Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences(IHSS),Peking University May 6, 2018.30 pm-4:30 pm. Conference Room 208 at Building 2, Jingyuan.

"CHINESE ASTRONOMICAL SYSTEMS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC? Conforming Earth to Heaven through the reaches of the Austronesian Expansion." Institute of Advanced Studies

University College London June 4, 2018, 10am, IAS Seminar Rm 20, South Wing, Wilkins Building.

"CHINESE ASTRONOMICAL SYSTEMS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC? Conforming Earth to Heaven through the reaches of the Austronesian Expansion." Institute of Ethnology, Qing Hua Da Xue, Hsinchu, Taiwan, July 26, 2018.

“Order on The Edge: Tying and String Figures in The Northeast Kula Ring,” paper and pptx presentation in American Anthropological Association panel “The Ties That Bind: Knot Metaphor in Society, Social Theory and Modernity” Wednesday, November 14, 2018
12:00 PM - 1:45 PM, San Jose, California.
 

2019    “AN ANTHROPOLOGIST AMONG THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS: My 45 Years with archaeology towards an historical understanding of the Kula Ring.” UVA ARCHAEOLOGY BROWNBAG April 5, 2019. PPTX lecture.

“A CRITIQUE: From The 1991 Plan (environmental research) for TREES, KNOTS AND OUTRIGGERS Environmental Knowledge in the Northeast Kula Ring, with Special Emphasis on Chapters 3 & 6.” To a graduate Seminar in Wang Mingming’s Peking University Anthropology Program, May 21, 2019. Chapters 3 & 6 center my structuralist take on the historical ecology argument that defines the book and its increasingly transparent lean toward things Chinese, most stimulated by the Professor in charge of the seminar, Professor Wang Mingming. In English with Chinese translations, mostly mine.

 “NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT 一个史无前例的时代 ‘Political Rites’ and the Rites of “Contemporary United States Politics—Where and How Goes the World? “政治仪式” 与当代美国政治的仪式--世界将走向何方？外交学院晚 The Foreign Affairs College/Institute, Beijing. May 23, 2019,7pm.

 

"CHINESE ASTRONOMICAL SYSTEMS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC? Conforming Earth to Heaven through the Austronesian Expansion” 2.0 南太平洋的中国天文系统？通过南岛语族的扩张, 将地球与天堂整合在一起. Zhejiang University Sociology Department 浙江大学社会学系 May 30, 2019 2:00 pm-4:00 pm. Hangzhou,  Zhejiang Province.

 

"CHINESE ASTRONOMICAL SYSTEMS IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC? Conforming Earth to Heaven through the Austronesian Expansion.“ 3.0 南太平洋的中国天文系统？通过南岛语族的扩张, 将地球与天堂整合在一起.  Department of Anthropology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian Province 厦门大学人类学系 June 11, 2019:  10:00-12N.

 

THE TRANSFORMATION OF‘ANCIENT CHINA’ IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC? By means of The Way of the Stars and Meanings of the “Way” 1. Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore 4:00-5:30, 120/06/2019.

 

THE TRANSFORMATION OF ‘ANCIENT CHINA’ IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC?
By means of The Way of the Stars and Meanings of the “Way” Among “The shadows of the past” (Lévi-Strauss, quoted by Cliff Sather) 2.0 Department of Anthropology University of Sydney, Australia, June 27, 2019, 3pm.

 

“NOTHING (MUCH) HAS CHANGED SINCE 1973: Long Term Research In The Northeast Kula “Ring OR MOLOTAU’S COMPLAINT”  For Association of Senior Anthropologists (3-0565) The Lifespan of Ethnographic Reports: The Importance of Revisits (Part 2), AAA/CASCA Annual Meeting, November 20-24, 2019, Vancouver, BC, November 21, 2019. 13- page paper & pptx presentation.

 

2020 A SYNTHESIS BEFORE THE FACT: Geometries, Ecologies and Histories Across the Indo-Pacific Preliminary comments for THE GEOMETRIES OF POLITY Exploring Cosmological Orders Over the History of China and the South Pacific. A 35 slide PPTX introductory presentation to the January 7-12 2020 UVa workshop “THE GEOMETRIES OF POLITY Exploring Cosmological Orders Over the History of China Through the South Pacific”

 

2021 From Liangzhu to the Kula Ring：Topological constants across a great transformation. PPTX presentation in Interpreting Liangzhu: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives, Panel in Zhejiang University, Hanghzou, Zhejiang Province, PRC. 11/13/2021

 

2022 THE KULA RING in the Context of the Austronesian/East Asian Dynamic. For the Panel “Deep Histories of Oceania,” Laurent Dousset, Organizer. European Society for Oceanists 2022 Conference, Ajaccio, Corsica, Friday, June 3, 2022

 

 

 

PUBLICATIONS

            Letters, reviews, review articles and short notes

1982    Letter to Man(n.s.) 17(2):342-3

1984a  Letter to Man(n.s.) 19 (4):668-670.

1984b Review of The Foundations of Structuralism: A Critique of Lévi-Strauss and the Structuralist Movement. By Simon Clark american ethnologist 10:261

1985    Review, Magicians of Manumanua: Living Myth in Kaluana. By Michael Young. Pacific Affairs 58(1):177-78.

1986    Review, A Critique of the Study of Kinship. By David M. Schneider.  American Anthropologist

1988    Review, The Fame of Gawa: A symbolic study of value transformation in a Massim(Papua New Guinea) society. By Nancy D. Munn. american ethnologist.

1991    Review, The Trobriand Islanders.  Film produced by David Wason for Disappearing World Series (Annette Weiner, consulting anthropologist).  American Anthropologist Volume 93(4):1036-7.

1992    Review, Observing the Economy. By C. A. Gregory and J.C. Altman american ethnologist  Volume 19(3):589-590

1993    Review, HISTORY, POWER, IDEOLOGY: Central Issues in Marxism and Anthropology, by Donald Donham.  American Anthropologist

1999    Review, CONTESTING THE SUPER BOWL by Dona Schwartz 1998 New York & London: Routledge, for Visual Anthropology Volume 14(2): 14-15.

2000    “TO RESTORE THE EVENTS? -- On the ethnography of Malinowski’s photography.” A Review Article of MALINOWSKI’S KIRIWINA; Fieldwork Photography 1915-1918 by Michael W. Young.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Visual Anthropology Review Volume 16(1): 71-77.

2002    “Invisible or Visible Links?” A Review Article Of Christopher A Gregory, 1997 SAVAGE MONEY: The Anthropology of Commodity Exchange Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers. L’Homme.  162: 233-242. http://journals.openedition.org/lhomme/10101 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/lhomme.10101

2002    Review THE ETERNAL FRONTIER: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples by Tim Flannery. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.  For Environmental History Vol 7(4): 695-6. /doi-org.proxy01.its.virginia.edu/10.2307/3986078

2019    The Reprise of Malinowski, Anthropological Forum,29:4, 374-383, DOI: 10.1080/00664677.2019.1648238 https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XSFCJHXADBJXTC8GGTEP/full?target=10.1080/00664677.2019.1648238          

2021    ON THE BACKSIDE OF A WAVE: An Obituary for a Star. Marshall Sahlins, December 27, 1930-April 5, 2021. Oceania 91(3): 322-329. DOI:10.1002/ocea.5316.

2022    Review OF HUMANS, PIGS, AND SOULS: An Essay on the Yagwoia Womba Complex. By Jadran Mimica.  Chicago: HAU Books [an imprint of The University of Chicago Press], 2020. xvii, 160 pp. Pacific Affairs March  95: 1),  

2023    Review SHE SPEAKS HER ANGER: MYTHS AND CONVERSATIONS OF GIMI WOMEN: A Psychological Ethnography in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea. By Gillian Gillison.  London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. xv, 290 pp. Pacific Affairs 96:3, .  

 

articles and chapters

1979     "Woodlark Island Megalithic Structures and Trenches: Towards an Interpretation." Archaeology & Phys. Anthrop.In Oceania 14:195-226. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40386355

1980a "The Kula and generalised exchange: considering some unconsidered aspects of The Elementary Structures of Kinship." Man (n.s.) 15 (2): 267-93.

1980b "The Problem of the Kula on Woodlark Island; expansion, accumulation, and overproduction." Ethnos 45:176-201.

1982    "Calendars and Calendrical Rites on the Northern Side of the Kula Ring." Oceania 52 (3): 221-239.

1983a  "What Moves the Kula: Opening and Closing Gifts on Woodlark Island." In THE KULA: New Perspectives on Massim Exchange. Edited by J. W. Leach & E. R. Leach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 309-342.

1983b "The Transformation of Muyuw into Woodlark Island: Two Minutes in December, 1974."  The Journal of Pacific History 18 (1):35-56.

1983c  "Muyuw Kinship and the Metamorphosis of Gender Labour."Man (n.s.) 18 (2):305-326.

1983d  "Further Notes on Woodlark Island Megaliths and Trenches." Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin No.4:100-113. https://journals.lib.washington.edu/index.php/BIPPA/article/view/11212/9852

1989a "Introduction," In Death Rituals and Life in the Societies of the Kula.  Edited by Frederick H. Damon and Roy Wagner. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. Pp.3-19;

1989b  "The Muyuw Lo'un and the End of Marriage." In Death Rituals and Life in the Societies of the Kula.  Edited by Frederick H. Damon and Roy Wagner.  DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press. Pp. 73-94.

1993    "REPRESENTATION AND EXPERIENCE IN KULA AND WESTERN EXCHANGE SPHERES (OR BILLY)" In Research in Economic Anthropology Volume 14: 235-254.

1997    “Cutting the Wood of Woodlark: Retrospects and Prospects for Logging on Muyuw, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea” in Colin Filer (ed.) The Political Economy of Forest Management in Papua New Guinea. NRI Monograph 32.  Hong Kong: National Research Institute and International Institute for Environment and Development Pp. 180-203.

1998    “SELECTIVE ANTHROPOMORPHIZATION: Trees in the Northeast Kula Ring” Social Analysis, Vol. 42(3):67-99. DOI 10.21435/sfa.2

2000    “FROM REGIONAL RELATIONS TO ETHNIC GROUPS? The transformation of value relations to property claims in the Kula Ring of Papua New Guinea.” The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology (formerly Canberra Anthropology) Vol. 1(2): 49-72.  In press (slightly revised) for Proceedings of Fourth Senior National Seminar on Sociology and Anthropology, in Kunming, Yunnan Province, Peoples Republic of China.

2002    “Kula Valuables, the Problem of Value and the Production of Names" L’Homme April-June 162: 107-136. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/lhomme/158 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000.

2003    “WHAT GOOD ARE ELECTIONS? An Anthropological Analysis of American Elections” Taiwan Journal of Anthropology 1(2):38-82.

2005   “‘PITY’ AND ‘ECSTASY:’ The Problem of Order and Differentiated Difference Across Kula Societies” Chapter in ON THE ORDER OF ‘CHAOS’ Social Anthropology & the Science of ‘Chaos’ Mark Mosko and Fred Damon, Editors, New York: Berghahn Books. Pp.79-107.

2005    “Pacific Peoples” a chapter in the 6 volume Technology in World History.  Edited by W. Bernard Carlson. New York: Oxford University Press.Pp.36-63.

2005    “The Woodlark Island Calendar: Contexts for Interpretation.” In SONGS FROM THE SKY: Indigenous Astronomical and Cosmological Traditions of the World Edited by Von Del Chamberlain, John B. Carlson and M. Jane Young Bognor Regis: Ocarina Books Pp. 348-357.

2008    “A STRANGER’S VIEW OF BIHAR-RETHINKING RELIGION AND PRODUCTION” in Speaking of Peasants:  Essays on Indian History and Politics in Honor of Walter Hauser. Edited by William Pinch. New Deli: Manohar Publishers. Pp.249-276.

2008a “On the Ideas of a Boat. From Forest Patches to Cybernetic Structures in the Outrigger Sailing Craft of the Eastern Kula Ring, Papua New Guinea.” In: Clifford Sather & Timo Kaartinen (eds.) Beyond the Horizon. Essays on Myth, History, Travel and Society. Studia Fennica Anthropologica 2. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. Pp. 123-144. 

2008b “CHAOS AND CONTRADICTIONS,  Reflections on Anthropological Borrowing” Translated by Liang Yongjia to “混沌与矛盾——关于人类学借用的反思” in Chinese Review of Anthropology, Volume 7:166-179.

 2008c “APPREHENDING THE MATERIAL AND SOCIAL WORLD Rethinking ‘Religion’ and ‘Production’ Along the South Side of Monsoon Asia.” Translated by Li Xiaomin to 理解物质与社会 世界: —再思“季风亚洲”南部的 “宗教”与“生产”  in Chinese Review of Anthropology, Volume 7:181-199.

2008d  “THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CYBERNETIC STRUCTURES: Wind And Water Ideas In The Outrigger Sailing Craft Of The Eastern Kula Ring” Translated by Liu Xueting to 控制论结构的意义：东库拉圈舷外支架航海工艺中风与水的观念  in Chinese Review of Anthropology, Volume 7: 200-215.

2009    “Afterword: On Dumont’s relentless comparativism” in HIERARCHY: Persistence and Transformation in Social Formations Edited by Knut Rio and Olaf H. Smedal. Berghahn Press. Pp. 349-359.

2012    ‘Labour Processes’ Across the Indo-Pacific: Towards a Comparative Analysis of Civilisational Necessities,” The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology Vol. 13(2): 170-198.  https://doi.org/10.1080/14442213.2012.656695

2012    Clare Tochilin, William R. Dickinson, Matthew W. Felgate, Mark Pecha, Peter Sheppard, Frederick H. Damon, Simon Bickler, George E. Gehrels, “Sourcing temper sands in ancient ceramics with U–Pb ages of detrital zircons: A southwest Pacific test case,” Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 39(7) :2583-2591.

2014    PRODUCTIVE DESTRUCTION: Observations about Destruction as the Central Organizing Form to Social Life, 民族学刊 (MínZúXuéKān) Journal of Ethnology of the Southwestern Min Zu University. Vol 5(3):4-6, Chinese Summary: 88-105, English version.

2015.   Kula Ring, Anthropology of. In: James D. Wright (editor-in-chief), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol 13. Oxford: Elsevier. pp. 139–143.

2016a Deep historical ecology: the Kula ring as a representative moral system from the Indo-Pacific,             World Archaeology, 48:4, 544-562,   doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2016.1220326.

2016b “The problem of ‘Ultimate Values:’ Charting a Future in Dumont’s Footsteps.” In Puissance et             impuissance de la valeur:  L'anthropologie comparative de Louis Dumont ed. Cécile Barraud,             André Iteanu Et Ismaël Moya.  CNRS Editions. Pp. 219-235.

2016c        “THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE DEAD: The place of destruction in the organization of social life, which means hierarchy.”  Social Analysis, Volume 60(4): 58–75. DOI: doi.org/10.3167/sa.2016.600404.

2017    “What Good are Elections? An Anthropological Analysis of American Elections” (Abridged) in

Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford Online, Special Edition, “Anthropology Matters, Especially in Times of Crisis,” edited by Elisabeth Hsu and Paola Esposito. Vol. 9 (2): 8-24.

2018a        “THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE DEAD: The place of destruction in the organization of social             life, which means hierarchy.” Reprint of 2016 essay in HIERARCHY AND VALUE: Comparative             Perspective on Moral Order. Edited by Jason Hickel and Naomi Haynes. New York and Oxford:             Berghahn Books. Pp. 59-76.

2018b  “Seasonal environmental practices and climate fluctuations in Island Melanesia: Transformations in a Regional System in Eastern Papua New Guinea,” Chapter 10 in Nakashima, Douglas, Igor Krupnik and Jennifer T. Rubis (eds.), INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR CLMATE CHANGE ASSESSMENT AND ADAPTATION UNESCO Publishing and Cambridge University Press. Pp. 142-151.

2018c  “One Spoon.” Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale Vol. 28 (4): 517-518.

2018d  “Further Notes on Kula Ring Calendrics-and Megaliths? Towards an Archaeology of             Austronesian East Asian Connections” “Short Communication,” Global Journal of Archaeology & Anthropology Volume 5(1):  DOI: 10.19080/GJAA.2018.05.555654.             https://juniperpublishers.com/gjaa/pdf/GJAA.MS.ID.555654.pdf

2021a  “ON THE WORD KED: The “way” of being and becoming in Muyuw.”  AUSTRONESIAN PATHS AND JOURNEYS. Edited by James J. Fox. ANU Press. Pp 275-301.

2021b “ASIA-PACIFIC LEGACIES In Eastern Kula Ring Outrigger Canoes” In Artefact and visual systems in Melanesia and Amazonia. Edited by Susanne Küchler and Paolo Fortis. Routledge.  Pp. 23-46.

2021c “On the Backside of a Wave: An Obituary for a Star, Marshall Sahlins, December 27, 1930-April 5, 2021.” Oceania DOI: 10.1002/ocea.5316.

2021d “Experimental Voyages by Real and Virtual Traditional Canoes of the Kula Area, Papua New           Guinea, Provide Insights into Ancient Sailing Technology of the Pacific Ocean and for the Settlement of Polynesia.” Loughlin Dudley, Geoffrey Irwin, Richard G.J. Flay and Frederick Damon. Journal of Pacific Archaeology. Vol. 12 · No. 2

2022   “‘Malinowski’ for Today? ANTHROPOLOGICA/AÑO XL, N° 49, 2022, pp. 293-305. https://doi.org/10.18800/anthropologica.202202.016.

 

books

1989 Death Rituals and Life in the Societies of the Kula.  Edited by Frederick H. Damon and Roy Wagner.  DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.

1990    FROM MUYUW TO THE TROBRIANDS: Transformations Along the Northern Side of the Kula Ring. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

2005 ON THE ORDER OF ‘CHAOS’ Social Anthropology & the Science of ‘Chaos.’ Mark S. Mosko and Frederick H. Damon, Editors, BERGHAHN BOOKS.

2017 TREES, KNOTS AND OUTRIGGERS Environmental Knowledge in the Northeast Kula Ring. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books.

 

 AREAS OF INTEREST

            Anthropological Theory; Political-Economy (Economic Anthropology & Historical Ecology); Social Structure; Chaos Theory; Ethnobotany; Ethnoastronomy; Oceanic Societies; Modern American (and Western) Society; East, South, Southeast Asian societies since the Mid-Holocene.