Repackaging Tradition in Tahiti?: Mono'i and Labels of Origin in French Polynesia

Stevens, Kate

doi:10.1353/cp.2018.0004

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Although there is recognition of variation in Western understandings of coconut oil-virgin, 9 RBD, 10 cold-pressed, refracted-in her view, coconut oil is understood as a base ingredient of entirely different productsmoso'oi, fetau, lolo ahi. In this Pacific context, coconut oil is defined by the different botanical, and sometimes zoological, 'essences' it's infused with which have specific cosmetic, medicinal and cultural purposes (Percival, 2001;Stevens, 2018;Tcherkézoff, 2008). To this māmā, my approach to researching coconut oil is akin to researching bread by examining only flour.…”

Section: Coconut Oilmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coconut oil has a place in death rite rituals in the Pacific, both before burial and after (Alefosio & Henderson, 2018;Cunningham, 1992;Stevens, 2018) Although oil degrades, archaeological records show that the practice of decorating Tongan graves with kilikili is nearly 700 years old; and isotopic evidence shows that the volcanic rocks selected to decorate graves have come from as far away as Sāmoa (Clark et al, 2020). Records of specific royal and chiefly funerals discuss the momentous lengths whole communities, and even the majority of Tongan subjects, went through to produce funerary materials and rights (Clark et al, 2020).…”

Section: Tau'olungamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Scent-a vital olfactory aesthetic-symbolizes Pacific ways of thinking and being (Stevens, 2018). It is scent that has the power to transport our souls to different places-to spiritual worlds, to the Islands, to family, to fond and painful memories.…”

Section: Tau'olungamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A central marketing strategy of health and wellness industries is to validate discourses of 'naturalness' using "frameworks of folk and indigenous wisdom" (Loyer, 2016, p. 19). These frameworks are loosely defined, generally unregulated, and easily manipulated for marketing objectives, especially in coconut oil marketing (Stevens, 2018).…”

Section: Validating Health Through 'Indigenous Wisdom'mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Though public health data in Tokelau, Aotearoa New Zealand and the United States generally do not support the health claims made by naturopathic advocates in pro-coconut oil material, there is little evidence to conclude that Pacific Islanders historically did not ingest extracted coconut oil at all either. It certainly was present in the Islands at the time of European contact, though European explorers seem to emphasize its cosmetic application in their records (Stevens, 2018). 46 This unclear and largely non-written history gives way to poorly referenced culture wars between coconut oil advocates and established medical institutions.…”

Section: Health or Hypementioning

confidence: 99%

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Coconut Oil Reflects: A Comparative Commodity Ethnography In Two Sites

Rigler¹

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<p>Coconut oil is a product saturated with multifaceted meaning. Coconut Oil Reflects examines the meanings coconut oil conveys to its consumers and explores what these meanings reveal about the different political and sociocultural contexts in which these consumers live. This comparative commodity ethnography investigates the spiritual, symbolic and material power coconut oil currently holds. In this thesis, I situate coconut oil in indigenous myths and rituals, and explore how it serves as a spiritual medium between diasporic Pacific Islander consumers now and the ancestors who came before us. I question the objectified value of the product in Pacific rituals and probe at intra-Pacific debates regarding what makes a ritual sacred. I explore how mythic representations of Pacific bodies are implicated in coconut oil marketing material and used to encourage majority non-Pacific consumers living in the industrialized West to reclaim their own senses of a ‘lost’ embodied indigenous self. This discussion prompts larger considerations of health, health authority, health autonomy, and symbolic anti-institutional capital. Finally, I explore how coconut oil acquisition binds Islanders to transregional indigenous systems of reciprocity, as well as how Western consumers use coconut oil as a way to acquire social status in alternative subcultural fields. Coconut oil is a product with boundless social lives (Appadurai, 1986); this thesis explores several through a multisited, mixed-methods approach. I draw on data collected from coconut oil-related discourse analysis, over five hundred online survey responses, and forty-four in-person interviews with Pacific Islander, Māori and non-Pacific participants living in the San Francisco Bay Area, United States and the Wellington Region, Aotearoa New Zealand. By employing a Pacific studies approach, this research project guides readers through complex worlds in which coconut oil holds different forms of political, spiritual and sociocultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986). Coconut Oil Reflects gives the product a voice to share the abundance of stories it tells.</p>

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Section: Coconut Oilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tau'olungamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tau'olungamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Validating Health Through 'Indigenous Wisdom'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Health or Hypementioning

confidence: 99%

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Coconut Oil Reflects: A Comparative Commodity Ethnography In Two Sites

Rigler¹

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Sensory perception in cultural studies—a review of sensorial and multisensorial heritage

Parker,

Spennemann,

Bond

2023

The Senses and Society

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Methodologies for smellwalks and scentwalks—a critical review

Parker,

Spennemann,

Bond

2024

Chemical Senses

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Olfactory elements of the human environment are essential with respect to culture, society and heritage, and robust methodological approaches are necessary to identify and describe aspects of this sensory component. To accurately investigate and advance knowledge of olfactory composition of spaces and places, that is, a smellscape – an olfactory contextualized landscape – innovative methodologies such as smellwalks can be employed as part of the research approach. Despite the increasing use of smellwalks, there is no current standard methodology for this investigative method in practice. We identify major themes including variance of group size, participant versus researcher-led walking techniques, reinvention of smellwalking process, and methodological discussion and theory. Limitations and future research potential are suggested, including that of group dynamics, attribute focus, the extension of smellwalk attribute data beyond traditional hedonic attributes, and avenues for development of future processes and protocols for multisensory sensewalks.

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Repackaging Tradition in Tahiti?: Mono'i and Labels of Origin in French Polynesia

Cited by 4 publications

References 28 publications

Coconut Oil Reflects: A Comparative Commodity Ethnography In Two Sites

Coconut Oil Reflects: A Comparative Commodity Ethnography In Two Sites

Sensory perception in cultural studies—a review of sensorial and multisensorial heritage

Methodologies for smellwalks and scentwalks—a critical review

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