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The Kanak of New Caledonia traditionally used intensive irrigation in raising the staple crops of yams, taro and bananas, a diet supplemented by fishing and raising pigs. The nuclear family was the principal unit of production and fundamental social unit, organized successively into extended families, patrilineages, and clans, a system elaborately mapped onto the settled and natural landscape as a set of genealogies, land rights, and territories. Lineage heads served as chiefs who maintained the social order and were the focal points of redistribution networks; the heads of ancestral lineages served as clan elders who weighed in on moral issues (including land and matrimonial disputes) and guided ceremonial life. Under French territorial administration, the Kanak lost control of much of their traditional lands, undercutting the role of chiefs, while mining offered male employment outside the communities. Social unrest following the collapse of a nickel boom in the 1970s spurred an independence movement and economic reforms.

Terre Kanak

The political order and corporal coercion in Kanak societies of the past (New Caledonia)

New Caledonia or Kanaky?

Kanak identity

Notes d'ethnologie néo-calédonienne

Do kamo

'The kite is tied to you'

Challenging violence

Land and politics in New Caledonia

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Author	Title	Publication Date
Bensa, Alban	Terre Kanak	1992
Bensa, Alban	The political order and corporal coercion in Kanak societies of the past (New Caledonia)	1997
Connell, John	New Caledonia or Kanaky?	1987
Leblic, Isabelle	Kanak identity	2007
Leenhardt, Maurice	Notes d'ethnologie néo-calédonienne	1930
Leenhardt, Maurice	Do kamo	1979
Paini, Anna	'The kite is tied to you'	2003
Salomon, Christine	Challenging violence	2008
Ward, Alan	Land and politics in New Caledonia	1982
Winslow, Donna	Culture Summary	2019

Kanak

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