The Changing Face of “Custom” in Vanuatu

Abstract

This presentation will provide some insights into the ways in which traditional culture, or “custom,” is being interpreted by different social actors in Vanuatu today. In the process of national ‘development’, there are a number of issues to do with “custom” being publicly debated in the media and other national fora. By seeing these issues as discourses, and by describing how these discourses have been constituted, this presentation will highlight some of the ways in which the concept of traditional culture or “custom” is being used and contested today. The particular discourses described here are those relating to the role of chiefs, the promotion of gender equity and the relevance of the formal education system.