Jari Kupiainen (University of Joensuu, Finland) has received the prestigious Dissertation of the Year Award 2000 for the Social and Human Sciences from the Finnish Academy of Sciences for his "Tradition, Trade and Woodcarving in Solomon Islands": a fieldwork-based anthropological study of woodcarving and the development of handicraft trade in the Melanesian archipelago.
It explores the Melanesian culture of Gatokae in the western Solomons and the Polynesian culture of Bellona in the south-eastern Solomons alongside the multicultural national capital Honiara, where much of the handicraft trade concentrates. The study integrates historical anthropology methods with sociological, visual, and artistic analyses of the contemporary sociocultural context of woodcarving art and trade in Solomon Islands. This original research is richly illustrated, and a digital photo archive is found on the cd-rom accompanying the book.

Jari Kupiainen, Tradition, Trade and Woodcarving in Solomon Islands, Hojbjerg: Intervention Press, 2000, 300 pgs., ills., includes CD-Rom, ISBN 87-89825-48-9. DKK 224.00 (approx. £18.50/€30.00) The study is available for sale at http://www.intervention.dk/; Intervention Press, Castenschioldsvej 7, DK-8270, Hojbjerg, Denmark; Tel: +45 86 272333; Fax: +45 86 275133.