Dr. Monica LaBriola, cover of Journal of Pacific History
Assistant Professor of History Monica C. LaBriola’s paper, “Planting Islands: Marshall Islanders Shaping Land, Power, and History,” has been published in the prestigious Journal of Pacific History.
The paper has been published on Pacific History’s website and plans call for the article to appear in an upcoming edition of the printed version of the journal. Access to the full article is limited to journal subscribers or those who purchase it on the site.
The paper reframes encounters between Marshall Islanders and outsiders between the 16th and 19th centuries through a Marshallese cultural lens. Labriola applied a deep ethnographic approach and frameworks of cross-cultural exchange and mutual possession to re-present Marshallese engagements across the beach as purposeful attempts to “plant” outsiders on land and within genealogies.
The paper argues that, in addition to violence, Marshall Islanders used “gifts” of land and other exchanges to plant outsiders within their realms and, in turn, augment their social status. While deployed most often by irooj (chiefs), kajoor (commoner) men and women used similar tactics with some success. Throughout, Marshall Islanders made history by deploying aspects of culture to advance local ambitions through engagements with outsiders.
The Journal of Pacific History is published by the Taylor & Francis Group, which is an Oxford, U.K.-based publisher of scholarly journals, books, eBooks, textbooks and reference works. The Journal of Pacific History’s research articles undergo rigorous triple-blind peer review and features works concerning the Pacific Islands, its people, and past.
LaBriola’s paper will be submitted to the James & Abigail Campbell Libraryʻs repository for faculty research, DSpace, and will be available for public download after an embargo lapses on it.
The current edition of the journal (Volume 54) includes a review of “Return to Kahiki: Native Hawaiians in Oceania,” a book by UH West Oʻahu Assistant Professor of History Kealani Cook.