the inversion of tradition

The extensive literature on inventions of tradition and identity in the Pacific has dealt mostly with reifications that are positively upheld by the people under consideration. This article traces some changes in cultural objectifications over various phases of the encounter between islanders and colonizers, examining the ways in which the recognition of both others and selves made particular practices and customs emblematic of whole ways of life. The fact that these generalized constructions of customary ways can be negated as well as affirmed may have broad ramifications for the ways anthropologists think about culture. [tradition, identity, invention, colonialism, Pacific Islands]