The magical body : power, fame and meaning in a Melanesian society
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The magical body : power, fame and meaning in a Melanesian society
（Studies in anthropology and history, v. 23）
Harwood Academic, c1998
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 279-289) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
An intriguing exploration of the role and significance of the body in the world of a Pacific Islands People, the Lelet of New Ireland (Papua New Guinea). In vivid ethnographic detail, the monograph captures the fluidity and complexity of Lelet conceptions of corporeality and their significance to identity as they encounter the influences of modernity, in the form of colonialism, Christianity and cash-cropping. The author examines the importance of the body to constructions of identity and difference, and its role in the constitution of place and space. The book provides a richly detailed ethnographic study of magical belief and the body whilst paying particular attention to the polyvalent meanings of bodily images and metaphors as they are used in numerous contexts of magic.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1: Empowering Bodies, Engendering Bodies
- 2: From Colonialism to Cash Crops
- 3: Christianity, Conversion and Magic
- 4: Embodying Kinship: Shame, Sex and Shell Valuables
- 5: Other Bodies, Other Powers: The World of Non-Human Beings
- 6: The Origins of Taro and the Culture of Famine
- 7: The Magical World of the Garden
- 8: Feasting and Fame: Finishing the Dead and Lifting up the Names of the Living
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