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Podcast: New Books in Anthropology
Episode: The Dragon and the Nguzunguzu
Description: NguzunguzuĀ is the traditional figurehead which was formerly affixed to canoes in theĀ Solomon Islands.Ā In this episode, Julie Yu-Wen Chen talks to Rodolfo Maggio, a senior researcher at the University of Helsinki about his book project on the dragon and theĀ nguzunguzu, namely the relationship between China and the Soloman Islands.The dragon and theĀ nguzunguzuĀ are taken as symbols of, respectively, Chinese and Solomon Islands identity. This essentializing maneuver is complicated by the appreciation of the two faces of both the dragon and the nguzunguzu.Ā NguzunguzuĀ are traditionally used to adorn canoes: they can be either b...