Mortuary Feasting on New Ireland - The Activation of Matriliny Among the Sursurunga

Contrary to conventional anthropological understanding, descent groups need not always be wealth- or office-transmitting groups, but can be principally feast-sponsoring groups. Sursurunga matrilineages are activated by individual's combined participation in feasting events, but individual's reasons for participating in feasts vary and often have little to do with matrilineal group membership.

This study of Sursurunga mortuary feasting shows that the analysis of groups-in this case, matrilineal descent groups-is best conducted by attention to the reasons that the individuals who comprise those groups act as they do. The salience of group membership cannot be seen as simply the blueprint for social life, but also as the outcome of social life.

List of contents

Preface
A Note About Language
Introduction
Sursurunga Historical and Ethnographic Milieux: Contact, Christianity, Cash and Context
Land and Matriliny
Rethinking the Logic of Matriliny
Sursurunga Mortuary Feasting
The Antecedents of Mortuary Feasting
Consequents of Mortuary Feasting: the Salience and Activation of Matriliny
Conclusion
Glossary
References
Index

About the author

ALEXANDER H. BOLYANATZ is Assistant Professor in the Core Program at Benedictine University. He is also the author of Mortuary Feasting on New Ireland (Greenwood, 2000).

Product details

• Authors: Alexander H. Bolyanatz, Bolyanatz Alexander H.
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.07.2000
• EAN: 9780897897211
• ISBN: 978-0-89789-721-1
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); Sociology, Cultural Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, Sociology: customs & traditions, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Indigenous Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Customs & Traditions, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Indigenous Peoples, Relating to indigenous peoples, Social and cultural anthropology, Cultural studies: customs and traditions, Papua New Guinea, Geography and World Cultures: Culture