Rodolfo Maggio is an anthropologist of the Asia-Pacific region currently working at the University of Helsinki. In the past, he taught anthropology at the University of Turin and has worked as a Special Foreign Researcher at Waseda University (2019-20), Tokyo, and as a Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oxford (2015-18). Maggio's ethnographic expertise centers on the Solomon Islands, where she has conducted immersive fieldwork exploring postcolonial tensions, cultural practices, and social conflicts. Her forthcoming work examines witchcraft accusations by covering visible and invisible dimensions of witch hunts in postcolonial contexts. He addresses land tenure disputes by tracing the history of land policy in Solomon Islands and analyzes internal relocation, highlighting adaptations of "home" amid displacement. Recent pieces on the 2021 Honiara riots and Malaita's renegade status further illuminate risks of retaliation, political subjectivation, and multi-ethnic nation-state dynamics. On child protection, he critiques early intervention programs in Ireland and the UK, linking austerity to perinatal mental health and ethics in ethnographic studies of mothers and services. He tackles decolonial discourse analysis of media, with a focus on Chinese influence in the Pacific. Gender-based violence and religious persecution appear in examinations of Pentecostal conversions and schisms in Solomon Islands, while broader ethical concerns span research recruitment practices and demand-sharing in kinship economies.
Witchcraft Accusations & Ritual Violence, Sufficiency Of Protection, Tribal Discrimination Or Persecution, Safe Internal Relocation, Risk Of Retaliation, Religious Discrimination Or Persecution, Linguistic Analysis, Land Tenure Disputes, Journalist Persecution, Honor-Based Violence, Gender-Based Violence/Domestic Violence /GBV, Child Protection/Child Abuse, Climate-Related Issues, Corruption & Impunity, Ex-Combatant Reintegration, Forced Marriage, Ethnic Discrimination Or Persecution, Specialized Medical Services
WITCHCRAFT ACCUSATIONS, RISK OF RETALIATION
Forthcoming. The Witch and the Switch: covering the visible and visualising the invisible in postcolonial Solomon Islands. In The Postcolonial Politics of Witch Hunting in the Pacific. Edited by Tom Bratrud and Chloe Nahum-Claudel. ANU Press.
2018. “According to Kastom and According to Law: “Good Life” and ‘Good Death’ in Gilbert Camp, Solomon Islands. in (eds.) Chris Gregory & Jon Altman, The Quest for the Good Life in Precarious Times: Ethnographic Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific Region. Canberra: ANU Press.
CHILD PROTECTION
2019. “They’ve always been good mothers”: an ethnographic study of early childhood intervention in Dublin. World Futures: The Journal of New Paradigm Research. 75:7, 502-519.
2019. Challenging the challenge: The Ethics of Early Intervention. Narrare i gruppi. 14(1): 79-102.
2018. Experimental ethnographies of early intervention: a new 'gold standard'? Narrare i gruppi. 13(2): 275-298.
2017. The moral economy of early intervention: mothers, children, and the impact of austerity on perinatal mental health. Medicine Anthropology Theory, 4(3): 53–74; DOI: 10.17157/mat.4.3.465 .
2018. Thematic analysis of stories of parents’ engagement with early intervention services. in Sage Research Methods Datasets. London: SAGE. DOI: 10.4135/9781526491428
2017. Relative Customers: Demand-Sharing, Kinship and Selling in S.I. Research in Economic Anthropology 37.
LAND TENURE DISPUTES:
2017. “Big Confusion”: The Land Question in Honiara and the History of Land Policy in Solomon Islands. People and Culture in Oceania 32.
SAFE INTERNAL RELOCATION
2022. “Hom and Honiara: Interpreting, importing, and adapting “home” in Solomon Islands.” The Australian Journal of Anthropology 33, no. 2 (2022): 101-116. https://doi.org/10.1111/taja.12439
JOURNALIST PERSECUTION
2024. “I’m sorry, but that’s bribery” A Decolonial Perspective from which to study Moral Economies in the “Chinese Pacific”. Island Studies Journal 19(1).
2024. Decolonial Critical Discourse Analysis of Photos, Videos, and Text About “China in the Pacific”. Sage Research Methods: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research. SAGE. https://doi.org/nnmh
RISK OF RETALIATION
Forthcoming. Malaita in the Solomon Islands: a renegade province in a multi-ethnic nation-state? In Unraveling the Conflict of Will Among Individuals, Affiliated Groups, and the State in Pursuit of a Multinational State. Edited by Atsushi Nobayashi. National Museum of Ethnology, Japan.
Forthcoming. “This is not protest. This is vandalism”: exploring the lack of political subjectivation following the 2021 riots in Honiara, Solomon Islands In Social Revolts as Events of Political Subjectivation. Edited by Angel Aedo et al. Routledge.
SPECIALIZED MEDICAL SERVICES
2016. The ethics of excluding potentially off-putting details from the recruitment materials for perspective research participants. in SAGE Research Methods Cases. London: SAGE. 10.4135/9781526411044
GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
2016. ‘My wife converted me’: Gendered values and gendered conversion in Pentecostal households in Honiara, Solomon Islands. The Australian Journal of Anthropology 27(1): 168-184.
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
2016. Pentecostal Churches in Honiara: The charismatic schism [...], in Magowan, F. and Schwarz, C. (eds.) Christianity, Conflict and Renewal in Australia and the Pacific. 59-80, Leiden: Brill.
2015. Kingdom Tok: Legends and Prophecies in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Oceania. 85: 315–326.