Achievement, Ascription, and Mana: A Step beyond Binary Opposition in Studying Leadership in Oceania

Abstract

This paper critiques the recent use of Marshall Sahlins' model, which opposes big men to chiefs to establish a contrast between Austronesian and Non-Austronesian communities in Oceania. By reviewing Sahlins' model and drawing upon Oceania-wide ethnographic work, I argue that the two opposed paradigms underlying Sahlins' model of leadership, namely achievement and ascription, are in fact entangled in practices and in ideologies. I contend that the cooccurrence of ‘achievement’ and ‘ascription’ is widely supported by ethnographies of Oceania; that these two features can simultaneously characterize a single leadership position; and that this dual aspect of leadership is conveyed in Remote Oceania by the indigenous concept of mana. This suggests that the historical analysis of leadership in Oceania should move beyond this the achievement/ascription dichotomy. Thus, instead of mapping the region in terms of their absence or presence, it is more productive to analyse how these features articulate, or to focus on other aspects of leadership in Oceania such as the relation between leaders and deities or ancestors.