Paper short abstract:

In Tuvalu, various forms of government replaced or modified existing institutions from c. 1850, embodied as moments we can call conversion, missionisation, colonialism and independence. However, these terms need scrutiny and all involve ideas that unsettle boundaries between religion and politics.

Paper long abstract:

In Tuvalu (formerly the Ellice Islands), various forms of government replaced or modified existing institutions from the mid-nineteenth century onward. These changes took the form of a sequence of historical moments that the literature conventionally labels as (for example) conversion, missionisation, colonial rule and self-government leading to independence. At least elements of these events took place elsewhere in Polynesia and in much the same order (though a truly synoptic account would undoubtedly uncover some variations). Each of these labels and the sequence they embody, however, warrants critical scrutiny, In addition, they all involve implicit and explicit ideas and practices of 'mission' that destabilise taken-for-granted boundaries between religion and politics.

This paper will investigate and illustrate these propositions by means of archival and ethnographic research carried out since the late 1970s. In so doing, it will raise questions for the comparative analysis of societies in the Pacific and other parts of the world, as well as helping to restore the notion of government to a more central role in the toolbox of anthropological concepts.