A01=Andrew Strathern
A01=Pamela J. Stewart
and Government: International Relations
Author_Andrew Strathern
Author_Pamela J. Stewart
Category=JBCC
Category=JBSL11
Category=JHM
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Law
Politics
Product details
- ISBN 9780897897075
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 30 May 2000
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
ANDREW STRATHERN is Mellon Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh./e
PAMELA J. STEWART is Research Associate in Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh./e
