New mana transformations of a classic concept in Pacific languages and cultures

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction : mana anew / Matt Tomlinson and Ty P. Kāwika Tengan -- Mana Hawaiʻi : an examination of political uses of the word mana in Hawaiian / Noenoe K. Silva -- Tha mana of Kū : indigenous nationhood, masculinity and authority in Hawaiʻi / Ty P. Kāwika Tengan -- Bodies permeable and divine : Tapu, Mana and the embodiment of hegemony in pre-Christian Tonga / Andy Mills -- Niu mana, sport, media and the Australian diaspora / Katerina Martina Teaiwa -- Mana, power and "pawa" in the Pacific and beyond / Alan Rumsey -- Mana on the move : why empirical anchorage trumps philosophical drift / Thorgeir Kolshus -- "Press the button, Mama!" : mana and Christianity on Makira, Solomon Islands / Aram Oroi -- The state of mana, the mana of the state / Alexander Mawyer -- Theologies of mana and sau in Fiji / Matt Tomlinson and Sekove Bigitibau -- Claiming pule, manifesting mana : ordinary ethics and Pentecostal self-making in Samoa / Jessica Hardin -- Mana for a new age / Rachel Morgain -- How mana left the Pacific and became a video game mechanic / Alex Golub and Jon Peterson -- Afterword : shape-shifting mana : travels in space and time / Niko Besnier and Margaret Jolly.

"‘Mana’, a term denoting spiritual power, is found in many Pacific Islands languages. In recent decades, the term has been taken up in New Age movements and online fantasy gaming. In this book, 16 contributors examine mana through ethnographic, linguistic, and historical lenses to understand its transformations in past and present. The authors consider a range of contexts including Indigenous sovereignty movements, Christian missions and Bible translations, the commodification of cultural heritage, and the dynamics of diaspora. Their investigations move across diverse island groups—Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Hawai‘i, and French Polynesia—and into Australia, North America and even cyberspace. A key insight that the volume develops is that mana can be analysed most productively by paying close attention to its ethical and aesthetic dimensions. Since the late nineteenth century, mana has been an object of intense scholarly interest. Writers in many fields including anthropology, linguistics, history, religion, philosophy, and missiology have long debated how the term should best be understood. The authors in this volume review mana’s complex intellectual history but also describe the remarkable transformations going on in the present day as scholars, activists, church leaders, artists, and entrepreneurs take up mana in new ways"--Provided by publisher.