Knut Mikjel Rio
professor
Universitetsmuseet i Bergen
Hjemmeside: http://pacific.uib.no/index.htm
Stilling: professor
Telefon: 55 58 31 12
E-post: Knut.Rio@uib.no
Besøksadresse: Haakon Sheteligespl. 10
· Melanesian anthropology: topics of gift, exchange and hierarchy.
· The anthropology of witchcraft and sorcery
· The anthropology of objects: museum collections, the social and the material.
· The colonial history of the Pacific
Present and former appointments:
- Associate Professor at the University of Bergen since 2003.
- Head of Department of the Cultural History Collections at the Bergen Museum, 2005 - 2007.
- Editor of Norwegian Anthropological Journal (NAT), 2004- 2008
- Associate Researcher at Centre for Development Studies, University of Bergen, 1998-2002.
Recent International lectures
-Invited paper at the University of Manchester, December 2006: ‘The displacement of morality on the Vanuatu sorcery scene’.
-Invited plenary lecture at Academia Sinica, Taipei, December 2006: ‘Discontinuities in cultural encounters. Colonialism in a Vanuatu Island’, at the conference ‘Imagined centres and diverse peripheries’.
-Invited paper at the British Museum, March 2007: ‘The Vanuatu sorcery scene in light of recent events’
-Organiser of workshop at the European Society for Oceanists conference in Verona in July 2008: ‘Cultural heritage and political innovation – relations of the state and alternative social movements in Oceania’
Fieldwork
I have conducted anthropological fieldwork in Vanuatu, in the island of Ambrym and in the capital of Port Vila for 9 months in 1995-1996, for six months in 1999 and again for six months in 2000. In 2006 I did two months of fieldwork in the capital of Port Vila in Vanuatu.
1. Theses
Rio, Knut M. 2002. The Third Man. Manifestations of Agency on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu. Thesis submitted for the degree of dr. Polit. at the University of Bergen.
Rio, Knut M. 1997. Standing Drums in Vanuatu. The Cultural Biography of a National Symbol. Thesis submitted for the degree of Cand. Polit. at the University of Bergen.
2. Monographs
Rio, K. 2007. The Power of Perspective: Social Ontology and Agency on Ambrym Island, Vanuatu. Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-84545-293-3
Rio, K. 1999. Oceania Gjenoppdaget i Bergen. Reiser i Bergen Museums samlinger fra Stillehavet. Bergen: Bergen Museums Skrifter, Kultur 3
3. Edited volumes
Rio, Knut M. and Olaf H. Smedal (eds.) 2008. Hierarchy. Persistence and transformation in social formations. Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-84545-493-7
Kjerland, Kirsten Alsaker og Knut M. Rio (eds.) 2009. Kolonitid. Nordmenn på Eventyr og Big Business i Stillehavet og Afrika. Bergen: Scandinavian Academic Press. ISBN 978-82-304-0049-4
Hviding, Edvard and Knut M. Rio (eds.) (Forthcoming). Social Movements, Cultural Heritage and the State in Oceania. Manuscript accepted by Sean Kingston Publishing in June 2009.
4. Articles in edited books
Rio, Knut M. (forthcoming). “High chief, Waetman and the traffic of ritual objects in Vanuatu”, in (eds.) Hviding, E. and K. M. Rio Social Movements, Cultural Heritage and the State in Oceania. Sean Kinston Publishing.
Rio, Knut M and Edvard Hviding (forthcoming). “Political Innovation in Oceania: Social Movements Between Cultural Heritage and the State”, introduction to (eds.) Hviding, E. and K. M. Rio Social Movements, Cultural Heritage and the State in Oceania. Oxon: Sean Kinston Publishing.
Kjerland, Kirsten A. og Knut M. Rio 2009. ”Introduksjon” til (eds.) Kjerland, K. A. og K. M. Rio Kolonitid. Nordmenn på Eventyr og Big Business i Stillehavet og Afrika, pp. 5- 11.
Rio, Knut M. 2009. ”Fra eventyr til industri. Historien om de norske sukkerplantasjene på Hawaii”, i (eds.) Kjerland, K. A. og K. M. Rio Kolonitid. Nordmenn på Eventyr og Big Business i Stillehavet og Afrika, pp. 187-221. Bergen: Scandinavian Academic Press / Spartacus Forlag.
Rio, Knut M and Olaf H. Smedal 2009. “Hierarchy and Its Alternatives: An Introduction to Movements of Totalization and Detotalization”, in (eds.) Rio, K. M. and O. H. Smedal Hierarchy. Persistence and transformation in social formations, pp. 1- 65. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Rio, Knut M. 2008 ”The scale of materiality. Objects between the social and the material”, In (eds.) H. Glørstad and L. Hedeager Six Essays on the Materiality of Society and Culture, pp. 155-173. Lindome: Bricoleur Press
Rio, Knut M. 2002. “The Sorcerer as an Absented Third Person: Formations of Fear and Anger in Vanuatu”. In (ed.) Kapferer, B. Beyond Rationalism. Rethinking Magic, Whitchcraft and Sorcery, pp.129-154. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Rio, Knut M. 2002. ”Eksotiske gjenstander og deres museumshistorie”, I (eds.) A. Johansen, K. Losnedahl, H. Ågotnes Tingenes tale. Innspill til Museologi, 56-73. Bergen: Bergen Museums skrifter nr.12.
5. Articles in refereed journals
Rio, K. 2009. ”Subject and object in a Vanuatu social ontology. A local vision of dialectics”. Journal of Material Culture 14(3): 283-308.
Rio, Knut M. and Olaf H. Smedal 2008. ”Totalization and detotalization:
Alternatives to hierarchy and individualism”. Anthropological Theory 8(3): 233–254.
Rio, Knut M. 2007. ”Exposer la vie après la mort: les effets sociaux des prestations mortuaires au Vanuatu”. Journal de la société des Océanistes 123-124.
Rio, Knut M. 2007. ”Denying the Gift: aspects of the gift and its counter-prestation in a Vanuatu society”. Anthropological Theory 7 (4): 449-470.
Rio, Knut M. 2005. ”Discussions around a sand-drawing: Creations of agency and society in Melanesia”. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S), 11:401-423.
Rio, Knut M. 2002. ”The sorcerer as an absented third person. Formations of fear and anger in Vanuatu”. Social Analysis, 46:129-154.
Rio, Knut M. 2000. ”Former for produksjon og betaling i Vanuatu: Gamle og nye perspektiver på resiprositet i Melanesia”. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift 11:197-211
Rio, Knut M. 1998. ”Tingenes tilstand ved Bergen Museums etnografiske samlinger”. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift, 9 (2&3): 93-104
Rio, K. 1998. ”Spiralen: Det materielle produksjonsapparat involvert i fremstillingen av menn og andre mannlige figurer i Vanuatu, Sentral-Melanesia”, Primitive Tider 1: 33-45.
6. Submitted papers
Rio, Knut M. “Witchcraft, Media and State: New Phantasmagoric Spaces in Melanesia”. Submitted to Oceania , September 2009.
Rio, Knut M. “The moment of uncertainty: witchcraft and its constitutional aspects”
Submitted to Critique of Anthropology, September 2009.
7. Other
Eriksen, Annelin og Knut M. Rio 2002. Stillehavsfolk i Melanesien. Hefte nr. 10. i serien ”Hvem er de innfødte folk ?” København: International Work Group of Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA).
· SANT 114 – The ethnography of Oceania
· SANT 250 – Bachelor essay
· SANT 204 - Økonomisk liv i et globalt perspektiv: Symbolske og materielle aspekter ved produksjon, fordeling og konsum,
· “In the Wake of Colonialism. Norwegian Commercial Interests in Colonial Africa and Oceania“, Unifob Global, University of Bergen. Project leaders Kirsten Alsaker Kjerland and Anne K. Bang. 2004-2009
· “Pacific Alternatives: Cultural Heritage and Political Innovation in Oceania”, Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. Project leader Edvard Hviding. 2008 – 2012.