Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors, and Gossip combines two classic topics in social anthropology in a new synthesis: the study of witchcraft and sorcery and the study of rumours and gossip. It shows how ...rumour and gossip are invariably important as catalysts for accusations of witchcraft and sorcery, and demonstrates the role of rumour and gossip in the genesis of social and political violence, as in the case of both peasant rebellions and witch-hunts. Examples supporting the argument are drawn from Africa, Europe, India, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. They include discussions of witchcraft trials in Essex, England in the seventeenth century, witch-hunts and vampire narratives in colonial and contemporary Africa, millenarian movements in New Guinea, the Indian Mutiny in nineteenth-century Uttar Pradesh, and rumours of construction sacrifice in Indonesia.
Divorce emerges as a phenomenon in counterpoint to marriage, both terms representing processes or phases of interaction punctuated by moments of completion and transition to further phases. We can ...make an initial distinction between divorce, viewed as undoing of preceding phases, and marriage, viewed as prospective of moving into a new relationship. Both divorce and marriage may carry different meanings depending on the wider culture in which they occur. Where marriage comes into being via a series of reciprocal transactions of wealth objects, divorce correspondingly consists of the undoing of such transactions, with the aim of creating a new order of relationships. This process can, in turn, itself vary as it turns on emotional manifestations between the parties involved, sometimes connected with the presence of offspring, as in the case of the Nuer people of South Sudan, among whom a wife does not shift to her husband’s settlement place until the couple have a child. The question of transactions goes with the significance of the wider kin networks in which marriages and divorces are regulated. All in all, our paper examines a counterpoint between legal and emotional aspects of both marriage and divorce, raising issues about what a marriage is and what constitutes a divorce, together with nuances of ritual processes that mark pathways between these categories. We draw on ethnography from Pacific cultures, especially Papua New Guinea, and from Africa, to explore these processes.
Creativity comes into play in human activities most notably in circumstances of crisis and stress, it is a response to difficult conditions, and a way of seeking solutions to, or escape from, such ...vicissitudes, a way of obviating or transcending suffering, a new way of dealing with the world by reframing the self in relation to that world. As a general human capacity creativity is by no means confined to the sphere of ritual. Innovations in science and technology constantly emerge in response to problems of living within the environment. Yet it is a point of first importance and interest that ritual often has a crucial role to play in the creation and transformation of social relationships as opposed to the manipulation or adaptation of technology. Adapted from the source document.
The authors present a historical picture of gender relations in Highlands New Guinea by exploring domains of imagination as revealed in courting songs, ballads, and folktales from across the ...Highlands but with particular reference to field areas in the western Highlands. Texts and/or translations are from a rich corpus of materials previously unpublished in English. The examples draw the reader into the imaginative world of the people, while the analytical framework sets the discussion firmly into debates within interpretive anthropology.The aim is to re-examine the images of gender relations in Highlands New Guinea by revealing the sensuous and emotional modalities of expressive folk genres and their aesthetic qualities. Ideas and practices centered on female spirit entities are shown to be important and pervasive in cult contexts, and these spirits were felt to have a significant influence on relations of courtship, marriage, and reproduction. Both women and men are also shown to have complex expressions of emotional dispositions in the spheres of courting and the choice of marital partners. By entering into these domains, the book modifies earlier analyses that have concentrated on antagonism, behavioral taboos, separation, and domination as themes in gender relations in Highland societies.
Elderly People Growing Tails Forth, Gregory; Lyons, Andrew; Salazar, Carles ...
Current anthropology,
08/2018, Volume:
59, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Since the inception of the discipline, anthropologists have endeavored to explain why people the world over develop ideas that lack empirical support and how such ideas are accepted as true. This ...article deals with a claim found among the Nage people of eastern Indonesia, namely, that extremely elderly people grow tails. The idea is discussed in relation to local experiences of aging and the elderly and in relation to cosmological beliefs with which it appears consistent, and it is further analyzed in the context of Nage folk biology. By drawing on cognitivist theory, it is then demonstrated how the representation comprises a counterintuitive idea that readily combines with intuitive knowledge relating to observable processes of physical change in elderly humans. Also discussed are a notional taboo on looking at the putative tails that reinforces the belief, in part by adding to its counterintuitive appeal, and the idea’s potential for enabling younger people to distance themselves ontologically from senility.
The detailed studies in this collection focus on different specific themes and parts of the world, but they converge in terms of a suite of themes that they address. These themes all have to do with ...the analysis of ritual change and the roles of ritual in creating or contributing to changes outside of, or integral to, the ritual context itself. The papers also have to do with conscious creation, or re-creation, of ritual forms in complex social circumstances. These conscious actions also often involve the re-appropriation of forms of ritual and their repurposing for political objectives. They also deal with how practitioners present change and interpret it in the light of their own agency and interests.
In this chapter we honour the fundamental and enduring contributions of Harold Scheffler to the study of kinship in human societies. Scheffler has vigorously pursued the topic of the primary ...reference of kin terms, and it is on this topic that the most controversy has tended to emerge. We recognise the force of Scheffler’s arguments, and we seek to mediate between the different viewpoints on the fundamental issues at stake by considering the evidence further from contexts of action and from some aspects of linguistic theory. Scheffler also made important contributions to the study of descent and the question of
本文是記述作者在巴布亞新幾內亞高地的哈根與杜納兩地之硏究，著重分析 兩地區儀式路徑的重要性與儀式領域中的優先原則（principle of precedence)。 「儀式路徑」一詞指的是崇拜展演由一個群體傳遞到另一個群體的歷史路線，而原 始的起點據說即是崇拜知識的發源地。來自這個地區的專家沿途擔任展演的執行 者，且可能是有酬勞的。「優先權」則指稱這些儀式專家有優越的權利可以掌控豐 ...饒生產力的神秘知識與力量，而這正是構成崇拜實踐的基礎。一般咸認，非南島語 系的高地社會在本質上是屬於平等而且具有競爭性的交換關係。然而，在崇拜脈絡 之儀式活動的領域中所顯示出的「優先權」權利，卻改變了這些原有的關係。而且 在崇拜活動中所建立的交換關係，讓那些認知到儀式專家優越力量的崇拜參與者 重新確立了自己的地位。這樣的高地社會分析架構，提供了一個不同於過去的觀 點，並同時呈現出南島語文化中所熟知的優先原則在非南島語地區的儀式脈絡當 中，亦具有重要的意義。而強調靈力來源的方式，以及靈力在傳遞的過程中如何成 功地被分享或分割，更能進一步讓我們有立場來比較哈根與杜納兩地的女性神靈 崇拜和台灣相當重要的女神「媽祖」之崇拜。這一個比較的立場乃基於兩個相似點： 第一，是以靈力所在之起源地，做爲該信仰最重要之聖地的優先權觀點的共同想 法。這原則在媽祖信仰叢裡更最非常地明顯。隨著新廟宇的建立，媽祖的靈力亦不 斷地跟著被分享和擴張。第二個相似點，是有關神靈或神祇的性別。女性神體的意 象代表著流動的理念，而神靈或神祇本身就像是帶著新的聯繫與力量來到一個新 天地的新娘一般。這種意象在巴布亞新幾內亞與媽祖信仰叢裡都非常地鮮明。而存 在於媽祖信仰叢裡精巧的交換，還建立了接受靈力之參與者不同的地位。儘管在歷 史與物質文化上有著極爲明顯的差異，但這些分析上的相似處還是可以區辨的。因 此本文所提供的是一種對於靈力傳遞形式之比較性的理解方法論，同時也精確地 指出在有關此類靈力傳送形式的原始理念中，其性別象徵的特殊意義。 本文亦同時記述相關個案間的差異。優先權的概念對哈根與杜納兩地區而言 都很重要，不過在實際運作上卻有所不同。在哈根地區，參與女性神靈崇拜的人付 給兩類不同儀式專家之酬勞，以重申交換的對等性原則，較杜納地區還來得強烈； 相對地，杜納地區大規模的財富競爭性交換，並沒有那麼地明顯。在杜納神話中所強調的優先權，可以用來解釋爲何以身體和資產做爲供奉的祭品，是沿著兩條不同 且嚴格區分的路徑來傳送的，而二者最後皆以祖靈或神靈所在的同一處石灰岩豎 洞爲目的地。這兩條貫穿杜納地景的路徑，隱然地將許多不同的地方群體結合在一 種對史翠克藍底河(Strickland River)的原始群體之依賴關係當中。儘管崇拜的地 點是沿著儀式路徑而建立的，這些攜帶著祭品(有時是處女的經血，有時是以從歐 克沙布明Oksapmin地區橫越史翠克藍底所抓來的男性俘虜之肢體做爲祭品） 的群體卻並未從其他的群體之處獲得任何的酬勞。環繞著女性神靈本身的基本象 徵，使哈根與杜納兩地所呈現出的現象更爲一致：女性神靈被視爲是結合高地森 林、雨水和林中水坑的環境之神，祂並藉由成爲一個群體中被指定之男性的「新娘」 (在哈根地區甚至是成爲一整個群體所有男性的新娘）來展現其強大的動能 (agency)。此種流動新娘的象徵，是以姊妹的身分離開一個群體後，再以新娘的 身分重新來到另外的一個群體，而在媽祖信仰叢當中也存在著這種具有這樣流動 靈力的流動新娘概念。 然而，媽祖信仰叢還呈現出另一種差異：當信徒護送雕刻精美、裝飾華麗的媽 祖神轎返回祖廟進香時，各地廟宇乃透過「分香」而從祖廟分得靈力，在這實踐中 透露出十分明顯的制度化優先權理念。但此同時，這些朝聖進香活動也提供來自各 地客廟與主廟之信徒，一個展示財富與宗敎儀式力量的機會。因此在最後的分析當 中我們得到以下的結論：進香者所表現之地方間的依賴關係與歷史淵源，就如同 在哈根與杜納兩地（即使後者程度較輕）的儀式路徑中，所呈現出的交換關係是一 樣的, This paper analyzes the results of original research by the authors in two areas of the Papua New Guinea Highlands, Hagen and Duna. The paper stresses the importance in both areas of the phenomenon of ritual trackways and the principle of precedence in the sphere of ritual. “Ritual trackways” is a term for the historical passage of cult performances from one group to another, starting from a point where knowledge of the cult is said to have originated. Experts from this geographical point act as officiants in performances along the trackway and may be paid for their services. “Precedence” refers to the superior rights of these experts over the secret knowledge and power to produce fertility that constitutes the rationale for cult practices. The non-Austronesian speaking Highlands societies have been described as predominantly based on egalitarian and competitive exchange relations. Cult contexts, however, show that, in the sphere of ritual, rights established by precedence modify this picture. In turn, exchanges that are built into the cult activities reassert the status of those participants who recognize the superior powers of the ritual experts. This framework for analyzing the Highlands societies gives us a different perspective from that which has been previously established, and shows that precedence, well known in Austronesian-speaking cultures, is also significant in ritual contexts in these non-Austronesian-speaking areas. An emphasis on the ways in which ritual power is seen as originating and on how it is successively shared or divided as it is transmitted along trackways further makes it possible to suggest a comparison between aspects of Female Spirit cults in Hagen and Duna and the temple worship of Mazu, a female deity of considerable importance in Taiwan. This comparison is based on two points of similarity. The first is the shared idea of precedence, in terms of the place from which power is held to originate. This principle is strongly established in the Mazu complex. It also goes with trackways, along which ritual power is held to have been distributed and shared out over time as new temples were established. The second point of similarity is based on the gendered identity of the spirits or deity involved. The imagery of a female entity expresses the idea of mobility and of the spirit or deity coming to an area like a bride, bringing new connections and new powers. This imagery is explicit both in the Papua New Guinea cases and in the Mazu complex. In the Mazu complex also there are elaborate exchanges which establish the status of the participants who receive ritual power. These analytical similarities can be discerned in spite of the obviously great differences in terms of history and material culture. The paper therefore suggests a methodology for a comparative understanding of the forms of transmission of ritual power. It also pinpoints the particular significance of gendered symbolism in the genesis of ideas regarding such forms of transmission.
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