Cause And Afek

Clark, Justin C.

doi:10.1080/03149099909508356

Cited by 4 publications

References 15 publications

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From Blood to Oil: Mining, Cosmology, and Human Sacrifice in Central New Guinea

MacDonald

2016

Oceania

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This article explores the intersection between cosmological history and mining geography among the Oksapmin of West Sepik Province. I show that the recent intrusion of mining activity into the local area has catalysed a revival of indigenous religious traditions to explain the occurrence and ownership of the precious materials believed to exist within the ground. Through an analysis of these parts of local cosmological history used to explain contemporary mining, I also seek to ethnographically and historically position the Oksapmin as a hybrid culture mutually influenced by the intersection of two overlapping regional cultural spheres: the Min cultural region, based on the ancestress Afek to the west, and a western highlands model based on sacrificial ritual to restore the vitality of the biocosmos, to the east. This builds upon earlier research done by anthropologists in the area that, on the one hand, portrays the Oksapmin as an anomalous ethnic group in the Min culture area and, on the other hand, that has stressed links between groups lying on either side of the upper Strickland Gorge. I also argue that the Oksapmin, Duna, and Bimin groups all shared a unique trans‐Strickland cosmological identity characterised by the pursuit of world renewal by means of human sacrifice.

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From Blood to Oil: Mining, Cosmology, and Human Sacrifice in Central New Guinea

MacDonald

2016

Oceania

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Pacific History Bibliography 2000

2000

The Journal of Pacific History

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Journal o f Pacific H istory serves historians, prehistorians, anthropologists and others interested in the study o f man in the Pacific Islands, including Hawaii and New Guinea. It publishes articles, an n o tated previously unpublished m anuscripts, notes on source m aterial and com m ent on current affairs, and is concerned generally w ith political, econom ic, religious and cultural history. It also welcomes articles related to oth er geographical regions, such as Africa and S outheast Asia, or o f a theoretical character where these are concerned w ith problem s o f significance in the Pacific. C ontributions should be typ ed on one side of the paper only, double-spaced, w ith wide margins on all sides, and should follow the style used in this issue. Two copies are requested, and a copy should be retained by the au th o r, w ho will receive 25 offprints w ithout charge. A dditional offprints may be purchased if they are ordered in advance. The Jo u rn al appears twice a year and may be o btained by subscription sent direct to the Editors,

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Alternating Ontologies: Exchange and Ritual in Anganen History

Nihill

1996

Australian J of Anthropology

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In this article I examine the changing social and historical context of exchange and ritual amongst the Anganen of the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, a neglected theme in Highland ethnography. I focus primarily on the history of the incorporation of one spirit cult ritual, rimbu, and its relationship to the other major spirit cult, kabit, and just how these two cults inter‐relate with two major categories of exchange—the ceremonial pig kill (yasolu) and the more ‘mundane’ forms of exchange associated with such events as marriage and death. It is the structural parallels, differences and interconnections between these two exchange categories and the two ritual types which have guided much of the historical development of local social structure until colonisation. This has resulted in a substantial, though not necessarily stable, integration of ritual and exchange which has been ‘played out’ over the approximately fifteen‐year periods between yasolu pig kills. I argue that it is this set of oppositions that provides the structural basis for different potentialities for male capacity. On occasion these may be so graphically distinct that they may be called differing social ontologies, different baselines for being and action. Different aspects of rimbu were adopted from around the turn of the twentieth century until colonisation some 50 years later when both kabit and rimbu were abandoned under mission pressure. However, to talk about the adoption of rimbu and the changes to Anganen social structure which it helped to produce as ‘pre‐colonial’ history is misleading to the extent that much of the impetus for change was bound up in the efflorescence of trade caused by the Australian pearling industry in the Torres Strait. I call this period ‘ante‐colonial’ in order to highlight the impact of the Australians and the irony that what the Australians indirectly helped create, rimbu as a central feature to Anganen social life, was destroyed with the direct colonial presence and missionisation.

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Cause And Afek

Cited by 4 publications

References 15 publications

From Blood to Oil: Mining, Cosmology, and Human Sacrifice in Central New Guinea

From Blood to Oil: Mining, Cosmology, and Human Sacrifice in Central New Guinea

Pacific History Bibliography 2000

Alternating Ontologies: Exchange and Ritual in Anganen History

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