A01=Michele Stephen
anthropology
Author_Michele Stephen
autonomous imagination
Category=JBGB
Category=JHM
Category=QRYX2
comparative religion
cosmology
cultural studies
dream reporting
dreams
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
esoteric knowledge
ethnography
fieldwork
folklore
hidden self
imagination
magic
manifest
mekeo
native peoples
natural context
papua new guinea
religion
ritual
secret knowledge
self conceptualization
self knowledge
self reflection
selfhood
social relations
sorcery
studies in melanesian anthropology series
subjective imagery
tribe
Product details
- ISBN 9780520088290
- Weight: 590g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Mar 1995
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
Filled with insight, provocative in its conclusions, A'aisa's Gifts is a groundbreaking ethnography of the Mekeo of Papua New Guinea and a valuable contribution to anthropological theory. Based on twenty years' fieldwork, this richly detailed study of Mekeo esoteric knowledge, cosmology, and self-conceptualizations recasts accepted notions about magic and selfhood. Drawing on accounts by Mekeo ritual experts and laypersons, this is the first book to demonstrate magic's profound role in creating the self. It also argues convincingly that dream reporting provides a natural context for self-reflection. In presenting its data, the book develops the concept of "autonomous imagination" into a new theoretical framework for exploring subjective imagery processes across cultures.
Michele Stephen, Associate Professor of History, La Trobe University, Australia, is coeditor of The Religious Imagination in New Guinea (1989).
