Phillip H. McArthur is an American folklorist and anthropologist. His work in the Marshall Islands closely examines social power and indigenous epistemologies with special attention to the tumultuous relationship with the United States. McArthur has spent much of his career documenting and analyzing Marshall Islander narratives, mythology, songs, and performances.
McArthur studied under the renowned folklorists and scholars Richard Bauman and Beverly J. Stoeltje. McArthur is currently a professor at BYU-Hawaii. He obtained an associate degree in psychology from Ricks College, a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in anthropoloy, and both master's and Ph.D. degrees in folklore studies from Indiana University.
McArthur's research emphasizes social theoretical and semiotic approaches to traditional narrative (i.e. myth, oral history), cultural performance (ritual, ceremony, festival, spectacle), history, cosmology, and local cultures within the contexts of decolonization, nationalism and globalization. This includes a deepening attention to political and economic forces, and their relationship to social power and practice. With a geographical specialization in Oceania, he additionally includes comparative studies on cultures of Asia, Native America, Africa and the Classical world. He also integrates deep interests in comparative philosophy, the history of ideas, dialogic ethnography, and traditional arts.
His teaching represents a wide range of topics centered in theory, cultural studies, and expressive culture. Students have noted that in each course he seeks to fuse anthropological perspectives with humanistic inquiry. While Oceania provides one geographical focus, his research and teaching philosophy seeks to bring to bear a comparative perspective into the classroom through exposure to a range of cross-cultural materials. He continues to develop curriculum in Anthropology and Cultural Sustainability, Pacific Islands Studies, and Integrated Humanities that engages students to think about culture in critical and thought-provoking ways. In this way, students learn to develop culture sensitivity and insight to function productively within academics, the private sector, government, and the community.
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