- 404 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
Filled with insight, provocative in its conclusions, A'aisa's Gifts is a groundbreaking ethnography of the Mekeo of Papua New Guinea and a valuable contribution to anthropological theory. Based on twenty years' fieldwork, this richly detailed study of Mekeo esoteric knowledge, cosmology, and self-conceptualizations recasts accepted notions about magic and selfhood. Drawing on accounts by Mekeo ritual experts and laypersons, this is the first book to demonstrate magic's profound role in creating the self. It also argues convincingly that dream reporting provides a natural context for self-reflection. In presenting its data, the book develops the concept of "autonomous imagination" into a new theoretical framework for exploring subjective imagery processes across cultures. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1996.
Filled with insight, provocative in its conclusions, A'aisa's Gifts is a groundbreaking ethnography of the Mekeo of Papua New Guinea and a valuable contribution to anthropological theory. Based on twenty years' fieldwork, this richly detailed study
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I From Manifest to Hidden
- 1 The Visible Ordering of Things
- 2 Manifest and Concealed
- 3 From Visible Things: Fieldwork 1969-1971
- 4 To Hidden Things: Fieldwork 1980-1982
- 5 A Distinctive Mode of Imagination
- Part II Dreaming and the Hidden Self
- 6 Dreams
- 7 A Hidden Self
- 8 Dreams and Self-Knowledge
- Part III The Sorrows of Knowledge
- 9 The Traditions of Secret Knowledge
- 10 Two Dream Diviners: Josephina and Janet
- 11 Two Men of Knowledge: Alex and Francis
- 12 Observing a Man of Knowledge: Aisaga
- 13 Learning “Sorcery” Unawares
- 14 The Sorrows of Acquiring Knowledge
- 15 A’aisa’s Gifts
- Part IV Conclusion
- 16 Magic, Self, and Autonomous Imagination
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Subject Index
- Author Index