Naven or the other self : a relational approach to ritual action
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Naven or the other self : a relational approach to ritual action
（Studies in the history of religions, . Numen book series ; v. 79）
Brill, 1998
- Other Title
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Naven
Other self
Available at 8 libraries
Note
A revised and expanded translation of Naven, ou, Le donner à voir, published in 1994
Includes bibliographical references (p. [287]-296) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In this work, the author propose a novel theory of ritual action founded upon an in-depth study of the wide variety of behaviors that the Iatmul of Papua New Guinea identify as naven: a transvestism rite studied by Gregory Bateson in the 1930s and documented by other anthropologists since. Ritual performance is shown to involve the construction of complex
relational networks entailing the condensation of contradictory modes of relationship in accordance with over-arching interactive forms.
In this volume, inquiry into the history of anthropology, detailed ethnographic analysis and theoretical discussion are combined. The first part examines Bateson's and others' understandings of naven; the second offers a reinterpretation of this ritual in the light of new ethnographic data; and the third proposes a general approach to the analysis of ritual and suggests how this perspective may be applied elsewhere.
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