‘You have to call the right name' – Operation Joshua meets Cosmology and Catholicism at Lake Chambri in Papua New Guinea

Falck, Christiane

doi:10.1111/taja.12358

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…During the 1980s and 1990s, Christian influence gained momentum in Timbunmeli and today its inhabitants understand themselves not only as Nyaura but also as Christians. 3 I (Falck 2018(Falck , 2020 have argued that the Nyaura's conversion to Christianity is connected to local conceptions of power, which understand access to and good relationships with spirits as a source of power. Before contact with Europeans, Iatmul societies were consideredby themselves and by neighboring societies-powerful local players, not only because of their skills in warfare and their dominance in trade relations, but also because of their spiritual repertoire (e.g., Gewertz 1983;Harrison 1990;Mead 1978;Metraux 1975Metraux , 1978.…”

Section: Religious Change At Lake Chambrimentioning

confidence: 99%

The Gender of God’s Gifts—Dividual Personhood, Spirits and the Statue of Mother Mary in a Sepik Society, Papua New Guinea

Falck

2021

Religions

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A Sepik myth tells of a time in which women were in charge of powerful spirits before jealous men reversed the gender roles by force. Today, the men of Timbunmeli (Nyaura, West Iatmul) have lost control over spirits who have started to act through female bodies. Christian charismatic rituals hint at mythical times, and remind villagers that women are the original custodians of spirits now understood as being spirits of God. While previously, male bodies represented spirits in shamanic rituals and through male ritual regalia, now women are the predominant recipients of God’s gifts. This paper analyzes the current religious practices as onto-praxis in relation to the local concept of personhood and the relational ontology informing the Nyaura’s lifeworld. Building on Strathern, Bird-David, and Gell’s theories about the personhood of humans and things from an anthropology of ontology perspective and adding a gender perspective to the discussion, this paper argues that dividuality put into practice has not only informed the way the Nyaura have made charismatic Christianity their own, but is also central for understanding current events impacting gender relations in which material objects representing spirits play a crucial role.

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Section: Religious Change At Lake Chambrimentioning

confidence: 99%

The Gender of God’s Gifts—Dividual Personhood, Spirits and the Statue of Mother Mary in a Sepik Society, Papua New Guinea

Falck

2021

Religions

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The Supreme Sukundimi Declaration – Sacred Water, Moral Ecologies and Ontological Politics in a Mining Encounter in Papua New Guinea

Falck

2023

Anthropological Forum

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‘You have to call the right name' – Operation Joshua meets Cosmology and Catholicism at Lake Chambri in Papua New Guinea

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

Cited by 2 publications

References 24 publications

The Gender of God’s Gifts—Dividual Personhood, Spirits and the Statue of Mother Mary in a Sepik Society, Papua New Guinea

The Gender of God’s Gifts—Dividual Personhood, Spirits and the Statue of Mother Mary in a Sepik Society, Papua New Guinea

The Supreme Sukundimi Declaration – Sacred Water, Moral Ecologies and Ontological Politics in a Mining Encounter in Papua New Guinea

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