Phillip McArthur
Phillip H. McArthur is an American folklorist and anthropologist who teaches at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. He studies the Marshall Islands, focusing on their stories, myths, songs, and performances. He first lived in the Marshall Islands as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and later returned there to do his Ph.D. research. He studied with scholars Richard Bauman and Beverly J. Stoeltje.
McArthur earned an associate degree in psychology from Ricks College, a BA in anthropology from BYU, and MA and Ph.D. degrees in folklore studies and cultural anthropology from Indiana University Bloomington.
His Marshall Islands work looks at social power and how indigenous knowledge is formed, especially in relation to the United States. He uses social theory and semiotics to study traditional narratives, cultural performance, history, cosmology, and local cultures, within the contexts of decolonization, nationalism, and globalization. He also examines political and economic forces and how they shape power and daily life.
While his main focus is Oceania, he also does comparative work with Asia, Native America, Africa, and the Classical world. He is interested in comparative philosophy, the history of ideas, dialogic ethnography, and traditional arts.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 18:45 (CET).