Book review : The digitizing family : an ethnography of Melanesian smartphones

Abstract

This book reports on ethnographic fieldwork conducted by the author in 2014 in Gwou’ulu, a village in Malaita Province of Solomon Islands, a small archipelago state in the Pacific. After an initial period of six months during which the male author undertook activities such as fishing with male villagers, while his wife spent her days engaged in women’s activities, the author turned his attention to the use of mobile telephones. The author introduces and refers to mobile telephony literature on Melanesia in a comprehensive manner. He includes studies from the neighbouring small archipelago state of Vanuatu and those from Papua New Guinea. The author argues that many of these studies were focused on urban or peri-urban communities. He suggests that his study makes a unique contribution because it presents in-depth understanding based on lengthy immersion in a rural community. [excerpt]