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Book Cover
Book
Author Strathern, Andrew.

Title Arrow talk : transaction, transition, and contradiction in New Guinea highlands history / Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart
Published Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press, [2000]
©2000

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Description xi, 216 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
Contents Pt. 1. Transaction. 1. Transaction and Personhood. 2. Trade as Transaction and "Friendship" 3. Pigs, Shells, and Locality. 4. The Relational-Individual -- Pt. 2. Transition. 5. Transaction and Rhetoric. 6. Early Administration: Kiaps and Councils. 7. "Law," "Custom," and Violence -- Pt. 3. Contradiction. 8. Honor, Shame, and Agency. 9. Crime and Compensation. 10. The Embodiment of Confession -- Pt. 4. Conclusions. 11. Money, Politics, Persons. 12. Resolutions and Revolutions
Summary "Arrow Talk makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Melanesian culture and contemporary sociopolitical issues in Papua New Guinea. In a post-modern era in which culture has been dismissed by many anthropologists as a reification, this book makes a cogent argument for cultural holism by showing how symbolic, psychological, religious, and linguistic factors have combined to shape Melpa responses to the political and economic crises they have had to face in the waning years of the millennium. This analysis also contributes notably to the development of anthropological perspectives on colonial and postcolonial historical processes. Since the Melpa face many of the same challenges as other "modernizing" people in the Pacific and elsewhere, Strathern and Stewart's insights are valuable for scholars working on similar problems in a variety of ethnographic regions."--BOOK JACKET
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 198-208) and index
Subject Ceremonial exchange -- Papua New Guinea -- Western Highlands Province.
Medlpa (Papua New Guinean people) -- Commerce.
Medlpa (Papua New Guinean people) -- Politics and government.
Political oratory -- Papua New Guinea -- Western Highlands Province.
Social change -- Papua New Guinea -- Western Highlands Province.
Speeches, addresses, etc., Medlpa.
SUBJECT Western Highlands Province (Papua New Guinea) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85046935 -- Social life and customs. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2001008851
Author Stewart, Pamela J.
LC no. 99048675
ISBN 0873386612