Dr. Mélissa Nayral on campus!
Thanks to the administration, in collaboration with the CREDO and our team, we were able to host our first conference on the Pacific last Thursday! Anthropologist Dr. Mélissa Nayral came to campus all the way from Millau (in the South of France) to give us a two hour course on anthropology and linguistics in the region.
Thursday 18th April, students attended in the Small Amphi the session hosted by Dr. Nayral, an anthropologist specialised in the Pacific region. As an introduction to the region, the professor gave us an general and pertinent insight into the arrival of the first peoples of the Pacific islands, their history as well as the linguistic map that has arisen from these interactions.
Dr. Nayral, formally trained as an anthropologist in France has dedicated her research, in great part, to the study of New Caledonia, and especially the Kanak peoples there. With numerous field experiences between 2007 and 2016, mainly in Ouvea, she also spent some time studying in Australia (Sydney). Today, Dr. Nayral accumulates fifteen years of teaching experience at the university level in France, with courses entitled “Anthropology of Oceania and South-East Asia” for instance. Additionally, the professor has published fruitfully in recent years writing articles, book chapters, conferences, and scientific reviews.
The conference was given in three parts. First, Oceania in the world. Here, Dr. Nayral focused on a more anthropological perspective. She began by presenting the region with its 10,000 islands and 42 million inhabitants to the curious students. Through pictures of the landscapes, the professor set the scene to better the understanding of the volcanic nature of the islands’ formation. Further, we discussed the history of settlements in Oceania, beginning 30,000 to 65,000 years ago. The first to arrive were in Australia, the Salmon Islands, the Bismarcks, Papua New Guinea and Bougainville. In this “nearby Oceania” were the first interactions with South-East Asian peoples which created the Austronesians. Later, these Austronesian migrations brought peoples from nearby Oceania to Santa Cruz, Vanuatu and New Caledonia around 1500 BC. Finally, around 1000 BC, they reached Fiji, Tonga and Samoa and Micronesia and from these lands, Eastern Polynesia (circa 500 years ago). At this point, people shared in a common language, pantheon and hierarchical ranking system. Hence, as Austronesians never migrated to Australia, the country is often excluded from Oceania. After explicating the example of New Caledonia to showcase practices of daily life, professor Nayral explicated the cutting up of Oceania into smaller sub-regions, namely: Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia and Australia. Before transitioning to he second part, we also focused on the cultural unity of pacific islanders. Crystallised by geographer Joël Bonnemaison, it is believed that what is shared is the structure regarding the relationship to space and land.
Secondly, Dr. Nayral focuses on the linguistic perspective, drawing out the landscape. In a first part, we focused on the linguistic density and diversity of the region. Indeed, although peoples of the South Pacific represent only 0.5% of the world’s total population, but makes up for 19% of the world’s languages. This data point resumes well the particular interest this region holds for linguists. To better understand this data, professor Nayral set clearly the difference between a language and a dialect, and yes, we are here clearly talking about whole languages. From there, we understood how, unlike Europe for instance, multilingualism is the norm in the Pacific islands. However, with the strengthening of colonial ventures, notably French and English, those two languages began to dominate the region. In Wallis and Futuna in 2003, 6% of the population declared only speaking French and 78% bilingual (including French).
Finally, in her third part, the professor focused on the combination of linguistics and anthropology. She showcased how this transdisciplinary approach brings new value to an analysis of society. Hence, Dr. Nayral presented us with an example she researched over 10 years ago conducted in Ouvea, in the loyalty islands of New Caledonia. By looking at the different words to express authority and decision-making in Fagauvea.
“Faga longo: obey and transgress
Faga longo is mostly used with a negation to express disobedience. Conversely, obedience seems to be implicitly included in the notion of respect. So, while you can "symbolically undo" a law by transgressing it, you cannot "undo" the word or decision of the chief. In this case, which corresponds to what is expressed in the last sentence, we are not respecting the chief's decision, which also implies a transgression.”
Hence, with other examples, we saw how the chief can be considered a person above others, though their decision cannot be authoritarian. Additionally, the professor gave us clear insight into the multiple academic fields, explaining what sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication and linguistic anthropology were, inspiring the students to new fields of interest for them.
Throughout the two hours of teachings the student’s received, Dr. Nayral presented a comprehensive, engaging and new vision of the Pacific islands. By exploring the Pacific through the lens of anthropology and linguistics, students were introduced to the peoples, history, languages and geography of the region. If you’re curious to learn more, we encourage you to read professor Nayral’s work published in open source. As a researcher and professor, she is part of the CREDO, a French group of research and documentation experts on Oceania, you can also discover her colleagues and their work that is also published online.