Circulating Cults in Highland New Guinea: Pointers for Research

Abstract

Trance and dreams become emphasized in inverse proportion to the emphasis on achieved leadership by means of exchange. That is, trance and dream are less emphasized as a means of establishing political leadership when they are replaced by leadership based on competitive exchange activities. The hypothesis is intended to apply regionally in the first instance.

Legal consciousness and the predicament of village courts in a ‘weak state’: Internalisation of external authority in the New Guinea Highlands

“…The dilution of the authority of magistrates in relation to kiaps was about the transition from colonial power to state power (cf. Strathern, 1972). However, what has been discussed in this chapter is not within such a framework, but the connection and disconnection of the fantasy of state power and village politics-that is, different kinds of power relations.…”