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This book considers in depth the emergent theme of concerns over bodily fluids in health and wellness through an examination of a rich set of ethnographic materials from the Pacific islands of New Guinea. The particular structure of the book draws together otherwise disparate observations made by ethnographers on ideas of the body. It helps to reveal how these are related to ideas of sickness and curing, of witchcraft, of cannibalism, of gender relations, and of ecology and ritual. It facilitates cross-cultural comparisons with other parts of the world, as well as making clear the fundamental similarities between the societies of Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea.
It also discusses the idea of the cosmos and its centrality to ideological representations of the physical and social body. Society is seen to be part of the cosmos, and the human body directly linked to, and in cyclical flow with, the elements of the life-world in general, and society in particular.
List of contents
Preface
Introduction: Gathering the Threads of the Flow of Life by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern
The Scent of Sweat: Notions of Witchcraft and Morality in Inanwatan (South Coastal Bird's Head of Irian Jaya, Indonesia) by Dianne Van Oosterhout
The Manes Kaya Healing Rite: Blood, Sago, and Sacred Cloths for the Ancestors (Irian Jaya, Indonesia) by Ien Courtens
A Comparative Discussion of Witchcraft and Healing Rituals by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern
Substance Transfer: Conception, Growth, and Nurturance in Highlands Papua New Guinea by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern
The Wöp Cult: Water Power by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern
Mind Substance by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern
Conclusions: Mediating Opposites by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern
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.
