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
Available at 8 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
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
by "Nielsen BookData"