The Python's Back - Pathways of Comparison Between Indonesia and Melanesia

Building on an incipient tendency to make comparisons between Indonesian and Melanesian cultural themes, this study makes a fresh comparison of themes that interrelate ethnographies of eastern Indonesia (for example, Sumba, Flores), Irian Jaya (the Bird's Head), and the Highlands of Papua New Guinea (Melpa, Duna). The themes chosen include slavery and personhood, kinship and commoditization, cassowary myths, sky beings, witchcraft, female spirits, and historical changes.

Such a comparative sweep of themes has not been attempted before for this part of the world, and the thematic approach adopted also makes it possible to examine topics both in the abstract and in terms of historical time. The comparisons made illuminate both differences between the cases chosen and particularities of each case, bringing together Indonesian and Melanesian ethnographies in a new way that transcends the conventional boundaries of regional analysis.

List of contents

Preface
Comparisons
Slavery and Personhood
Kinship and Commoditization
Cassowaries
Sky Beings and Earth
Female Spirits
Witchcraft
Themes
Envoi: Histories
Index

About the author

Pamela J. Stewart is Senior Research Associate and Co-Director of the Cromie Burn Research Unit, in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, and Co-Editor of the Journal of Ritual Studies and the Ritual Studies Book Series.Andrew Strathern is Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA, and Co-Editor of the Journal of Ritual Studies and the Ritual Studies Book Series.

Product details

• Authors: Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 7 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.05.2000
• EAN: 9780897897075
• ISBN: 978-0-89789-707-5
• No. of pages: 208
• Weight: 510 g
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); Cultural Studies, Anthropology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Peoples, Relating to indigenous peoples, Indonesia, Physical anthropology, Melanesia, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies, Politics, Law, and Government: International Relations