Pentecostal dreaming and technologies of governmentality in a Melanesian society

Abstract

Among the Lelet of central New Ireland (Papua New Guinea), a dramatic increase in Pentecostalist fervor has produced significant changes in dreaming. Traditionally, the Lelet have valued dreaming as a means of access to knowledge and power. Now it is seen as a gift bestowed by the Holy Spirit, giving access to new and different forms of knowledge and power. Pentecostalism lays down many rules of conduct for the avoidance of sin, and dreams now play a role in policing them. Drawing on Michel Foucault's work on governmentality, I find that Lelet dreaming acts as a form of self‐scrutiny, reminding dreamers of the need to rectify their failures to follow Pentecostal precepts. Beyond this, dreams enable people to address the dilemmas that emerge when they embrace frameworks that impose radically different ways of being in the world than their previous religion did.

On Academic Foucauldian-dramaturgy and Modernity in Melanesia

“…, in the context of the history of (principally Western) European life‐worlds, their political configurations, and so on. The ethnographic applications of Foucault's formulations in the context of Melanesia that I am familiar with come from accomplished ethnographers and scholars ( e.g ., Clark ; Eves ; Jacka ; Knauft ; Lattas ; Lindstrom ; Wardlow ) . Nevertheless, as an interpretive endeavour, these writings exemplify primarily an ossification into a stock of what I call Foucauldian iconography and Foucault‐dramatic clichés.…”

“…Yet another good indicator that the use of Foucault's ouvre figures predominantly as an ossified discursive blueprint is a recent paper by Richard Eves (), a seasoned ethnographer of the Lelet Mandak of New Ireland. He avers that ‘like Foucault himself, I am against the imposition of any grand theory without regard to culture or context’ (p. 758) but has no second thoughts using Foucault's framework as ‘the analytic toolbox’ ( ibid .).…”

Uma antropologia da interface: políticas públicas e assistenciais em perspectiva comparativa

“…A arquitetura conceitual do projeto dialoga criticamente com a línea de análise inspirada pelo tema foucaultiano de "governamentalidade" que inspirou, nas últimas duas décadas, trabalhos relevantes sobre: espaço e habitação (Rabinow, 1989); psiquiatria, medicina e construção do self (Ong, 1995;Rose, 1998); pobreza e insegurança (Dean, 1991;Procacci, 1993); insegurança social (Ewald, 1986); risco (O'Malley, 1992;Lupton, 2005); regulação da reprodução, controle do corpo e da sexualidade (Horn, 1994;Weir, 1996;Ruhl, 1999;Greenhalgh, 2003); imigração e segurança (Bigo, 2011;Duffield, 2007;Huysmans e col., 2006); saúde global (King, 2002;Roberts, 2010;Sargent e Larchanché, 2011) e religião (Garmany, 2010;Biebricher, 2011;Eves, 2011).…”

Foucault among the Melanesianists

“…Mimica's interest in critically scrutinising the use of what he dubs ‘Foucauldian‐dramaturgy’ in accounts of Melanesian social life is further extended to a recent article by Eves (). Whereas Jacka and Clark only draw in a limited way on Foucauldian concepts in their analysis, Eves's entire article is informed by Foucault's construct of ‘governmentality’ and idioms associated with this idea.…”