Pika-Pika: The Flashing Firefly
Subtitle: Essays for Pauline Hetland Walker (1938-2005) by her Friends in the Arts & Social Sciences
Publisher: Hindustan Publishing Corporation
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Delhi
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Subjects: Modern Jazz Quartet,  S. Asia, S. India, Toda people, Nepal, SE Asia, Brunei, Dusun people, Sarawak (E. Malaysia), Badeng people, Thailand, Karen people, Lahu people, Laos, SW China, Buddhism, Singapore, Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society, Indonesia, Flores, Nage people, E. Asia, Japan, Japanese Fertility Association, Korea, Sex slaves, South Pacific, Fiji, Fijian potters, Vanuatu, Vanuatu potters, United Kingdom, Early Modern Theatre, USA, Native Americans, Caribbean, Haiti, South America, South American Indigenous Peoples, Colombia, Ika people
Genres: Biography, Ethnology, History, Linguistics, Musicology, Performing Arts, Pottery, Crafts, Women's Studies, Medical Anthropology, Ethno-ornithology
Description: Pika-Pika (a Japanese onomatopoeic expression conjuring up the flashing of fireflies) is a multi-disciplinary, multi-regional collection of academic papers written by twenty-two scholars (with 17 Ph.D.s among them), of ten different nationalities and an even greater number of ethnicities. The authors, who are scattered across the globe from North America through the South Pacific to East, Southeast and South Asia, have contributed to this book because they wish to honour in this way a cherished friend, Pauline Hetland Walker, who lost her bold fight against breast cancer on Easter morning of 2005.

The book includes contributions from anthropologists, sociologists, linguists and geographers, as well as from music, theatre and literary specialists. Twelve chapters focus on the Asian region (eight concerning Southeast Asia; two, South Asia and two, East Asia). There are contributions also on Oceania (two), North America (two and a part of a third), South America (one) and the Caribbean (one), as well as on Britain (one) and East Africa (one). 

An eclectic collection of materials, which, incidentally, would have delighted the person whom they honour, all the individual contributions have been inspired, nonetheless, by Pauline Walker’s own special life interests. They are grouped together in this book according to her passions: music, song and dance (Part One), literature, poetry and theatre (Part Two), pottery (Part Three), craftsmanship (Part Four), women’s issues (Part Five), health care practices (Part Six) and, finally, religious diversity, myth and ritual (Part Seven). 

The Editor's Introduction, besides previewing the collection, tells a little of the story of Pauline’s life; in addition, each author has her or his own comments on that score. All this makes Pika-Pika a particularly personal and poignant book. This notwithstanding, it is also a work that has been written, following exacting scholarly criteria, mostly by members of the academy who seek not only to honour a departed friend, but also to contribute to the scholarly literature of their respective disciplines. Pika-Pika is not a vanity publication; it will succeed as a befitting and enduring memorial to Pauline Hetland Walker only if academic institutions choose to secure copies for their collections.

The editor, Anthony Walker, is a British social anthropologist and now Professor of Anthropology at the University of Brunei Darussalam in Bandar Seri Begawan. He was married to Pauline from 2 May 1971 to her death on 27 March 2005. Brief profiles (and photographs) of the authors appear at the head of their respective chapters.
Notes: 165 figures (of which, 126 black-and-white photographs), 20 maps
Table of contents: title: Contents (v-xix); title: Chapter 1.  Introduction: To Honour a Life Well Spent by Anthony R. Walker (1-18); title: PART ONE. JOIE DE VIVRE: OF MUSIC, SONG AND DANCE  (23-83); title: Chapter 2. Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West: The Last of the Modern Jazz Quartet by Bill Egan (25-36); title: Chapter 3. Sacred Music of the Karen Hills by Elizabeth Hinton (37-52); title: Chapter 4.  Dance and Trance in Ritual and Performance: Haiti and Beyond (53-63); title: Chapter 5.  A Felicitous Meeting: Pauline Walker and the Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society (65-83); title: PART TWO. THE THRILL OF LITERATURE, POETRY AND THE STAGE  (85-136); title: Chapter 6. Stage and Page: Early Modern Performance at London's Rose Theatre by Peter Hyland (87-98); title: Chapter 7. Friend or Foe? Technology amd Its Impact on Javanese Wayang Kulit: A Revisitation by Roger Long (99-116); title: Chapter 8. Syntactic Parallelism and Morphological Elaboration in Lahu Religious Poetry by James A. Matisoff (117-136); title: PART THREE. AN AFFAIR WITH POTS  (137-180); title: Chapter 9. Down to Earth in Wusi (Vanuatu): Women Potters and the Legacy of Lapita by John and Jean McKinnon (139-159); title: Chapter 10. The Stone and the Paddle: Taraivini Wati and the Stranger Potters of Nasilai, Fiji by Paul Geraghty (161-180); title: PART FOUR: THE LOVE OF FINE CRAFTSMANSHIP  (181-256); title: Chapter 11. A Unique South Indian Tradition: Toda Dress and Embroidery by Tarun Chhabra (183-218); title: Chapter 12. Skilled Craftsmanship from Interior Borneo: Badeng Traditional Crafts and their Future by Tan Chee-Beng (219-237); title: Chapter 13. The Commercialization of a Native American Craft: The Hopi Example by Shuichi Nagata (239-256); title: PART FIVE. THE CONCERN FOR WOMEN'S ISSUES—WORLDWIDE  (257-320); title: Chapter 14. Body Modification in Africa and America: A Comparison by Mary T. Howard (259-276); title: Chapter 15. Yama no Kami Kou: The Mountain Goddess Fertility Association in Northeast Japan by Richard Moore (277-293); title: Chapter 16. Korean Sex Slaves Under Japanese Occupation by Kim Myung-hye (295-320); title: PART SIX. THE INTEREST IN COMPARATIVE HEALING PRACTICES (321-365); title: Chapter 17. Faith Healers in the Himalayas: The Jhankri of Nepal by Deborah S. Akers (323-333); title: Chapter 18. The interpretation of Sickness and the Conduct of Healing in Traditional Brunei Dusun Society by Pudarno Binchin (335-365); title: PART SEVEN: A FASCINATION FOR RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY, MYTH AND RITUAL  (367-420); title: Chapter 19. In the Footsteps of Buddha: Mobility and Resistance in the Upper Mekong by Paul T. Cohen (369-383); title: Chapter 20: Transformation and Replacement: A Comparison of Some Indonesian Birth Myths by Gregory Forth (385-402); title: Chapter 21. Searching for Lost Worlds: El Dorado and the Sacred Mountain of the Ika of Northeast Colombia by Donald Tayler (403-420); title: Appendix: A Selection of Pauline Hetland Walker's Writings amd Principal Editorial Contributions (1957-2005), compiled by Anthony R. Walker (421-453); title: General Index and Glossary (455-489)