Bodies and Persons
Comparative Perspectives from Africa and Melanesia
$57.99 (P)
- Editors:
- Michael Lambek, University of Toronto
- Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
- Date Published: March 1998
- availability: Available
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521627375
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This book suggests a bold comparative approach to broad cultural differences between Africa and Melanesia. Its theme is personhood, understood in terms of what anthropologists call embodiment. These concepts are applied to questions ranging from the meanings of spirit possession, to the logics of witchcraft and kinship relations, the use of rituals in healing, and even the impact of capitalism. Questioning common assumptions about the huge differences among these discrete areas, the contributions document surprising continuities.
Read more- Considers the political and economic effects and future implications of the recent reforms in Latin America and Eastern Europe
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Reviews & endorsements
"This is a valuable contribution to comparative ethnography." Religious Studies Review
See more reviews"Lambek and Strathern have produced a rich and fascinating volume...This volume should interest all who are concerned with Africa, Melanesia, comparison, person/body, and contemporary anthropological theory. It is an example of what the best of edited volumes should be." Pacific Affairs Winter 01
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×Product details
- Date Published: March 1998
- format: Paperback
- isbn: 9780521627375
- length: 316 pages
- dimensions: 236 x 158 x 26 mm
- weight: 0.631kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
1. Introduction Andrew Strathern
Part I. Transcending Dichotomies:
2. 'It's a boy', 'It's a girl!': reflections on sex and gender in Madagascar and beyond Rita Astuti
3. Modernity and formative personhood in Melanesia Edward LiPuma
4. Refiguring the person: the dynamics of affects and symbols in an African spirit possession cult Ellen Corin
5. Body and mind in mind, body and mind in body: some anthropological interventions in a long conversation Michael Lambek
Part II. Transitions, Containments, Decontainments:
6. Treating the affect by remodelling the body in a Yaka healing cult Rene Devisch
7. To eat for another: taboo and the elicitation of bodily form among the Kamea of Papua New Guinea Sandra Bamford
8. Electric vampires: Haya rumors of the commodified body Brad Weiss
Part III. From Exchange to History:
9. Creative possessions: spirit mediumship and millennial economy among Gebusi of Papua New Guinea Bruce M. Knauft
10. Dis-embodiment and concealment among the Atbalmin of Papua New Guinea Eytan Bercovitch
11. Melpa and Nuer ideas of life and death: the rebirth of a comparison Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart
Afterword Janice Boddy.
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