The History of Melanesian Society

The History of Melanesian Society
Author: William Halse Rivers Rivers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 619
Release: 2014-08-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1107419344

This two-volume work from 1914 presents William Halse Rivers' theory of the diffusion of culture in the south-west Pacific. Volume Two details the many similarities and differences among the societies of Melanesia and the possible ways in which these contrasts could have arisen.

The History of Melanesian Society; Volume 1

The History of Melanesian Society; Volume 1
Author: W H R (William Halse River Rivers
Publisher: Legare Street Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-10-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781018578057

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Always Hungry, Never Greedy

Always Hungry, Never Greedy
Author: Miriam Kahn
Publisher: Waveland Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 1993-12-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1478609184

The Wamira people of Papua New Guinea display what outsiders would describe as an obsession with food. Who owns how many pigs, how much taro grows in whose garden, and who contributes what food at a feast, are all questions uppermost in their thoughts. Wamirans account for this preoccupation by saying that they suffer from perpetual famine. They explain this by means of an elaborate and colorful myth about Tamodukorokoro, a monster who would have brought them abundant food, but whom, in typical Wamiran style of fearing what they desire, they chased away. In this carefully crafted and beautifully evocative book, Kahn, who lived with the Wamira people for two and a half years, argues that Wamirans famine has in fact little to do with the belly. For Wamirans, concepts of food and hunger are cultural constructs. By means of food, they objectify emotions, balance relations between men and women, communicate rivalries among men, and ultimately, control the ambivalent desires that they fear would otherwise control them. Effectively combining analyses of myths and symbols with analytical accounts of subsistence and ritual behavior, Kahn writes with a degree of nuance that takes the reader beyond academic analyses into the experience of the ethnographer and the daily lives of the people with whom she resided.

The Reinvention of Primitive Society

The Reinvention of Primitive Society
Author: Adam Kuper
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2017-02-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1351852973

The Reinvention of Primitive Society critiques ideas about the origins of society and religion that have been hotly debated since Darwin. Tracing interpretations of the barbarian, savage and primitive back through the centuries to ancient Greece, Kuper challenges the myth of primitive society, a concept revived in its current form by the modern indigenous peoples’ movement: tapping into widespread popular beliefs regarding the noble savage and reflecting a romantic reaction against ‘civilisation’ and ‘science’. Through a fascinating analysis of seminal works in anthropology, classical studies and law, this book reveals how wholly mistaken theories can become the basis for academic research and political programmes. Lucidly written and highly influential since first publication, it is a must-have text for those interested in anthropological theory and post-colonial debates.

The History of Melanesian Society, Vol. 1 of 2 (Classic Reprint)

The History of Melanesian Society, Vol. 1 of 2 (Classic Reprint)
Author: W. H. R. Rivers
Publisher: Forgotten Books
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2017-11-17
Genre:
ISBN: 9780331289701

Excerpt from The History of Melanesian Society, Vol. 1 of 2 At the present moment there exists in Melanesia an influence far more likely to produce disintegration of native institutions than the work of missionaries. I refer to the repatriation of Melanesian labourers from Queensland which has been the result of the movement for a white Australia. Large numbers of men, women and children have recently returned to nearly every Melanesian island. Some had been many years in Queensland and have quite forgotten all they ever knew of their native institutions; some even have that contempt for these institutions which so often accompanies a smattering Of civilisation. Their influence on native institutions in the future must almost certainly be great, but this influence is so comparatively recent that I do not believe it has had any appreciable effect on the social conditions which I record in this volume. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Magical Body

The Magical Body
Author: Richard Eves
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2014-01-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1134410506

An intriguing exploration of the role and significance of the body in the world of a Pacific Islands People, the Lelet of New Ireland (Papua New Guinea). In vivid ethnographic detail, the monograph captures the fluidity and complexity of Lelet conceptions of corporeality and their significance to identity as they encounter the influences of modernity, in the form of colonialism, Christianity and cash-cropping. The author examines the importance of the body to constructions of identity and difference, and its role in the constitution of place and space. The book provides a richly detailed ethnographic study of magical belief and the body whilst paying particular attention to the polyvalent meanings of bodily images and metaphors as they are used in numerous contexts of magic.