The Vanuatu Kastom Economy and the Politics of Traditional Knowledge

Record summary

Vanuatu scholarship and policy discussions examine kastom as a living field of customary authority, ritual knowledge, healing, land relations, and ancestral obligation. This makes it useful for comparing esoteric knowledge systems with state law, tourism, Christianity, and intellectual-property regimes. “Kastom” is not a single occult doctrine; meanings vary among islands and languages. Some accounts also distinguish authorized customary specialists from commercialized presentations for outsiders. A researcher should locate the specific island, community, and publication rather than treating Vanuatu kastom as a uniform Pacific belief system.