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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.
Price: $39.95
Pages: 404
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Series: Studies in Melanesian Anthropology
Publication Date:
01 March 1995
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9780520088290
Format: Paperback
Michele Stephen, Associate Professor of History, La Trobe University, Australia, is coeditor of The Religious Imagination in New Guinea (1989).
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 Ill: 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
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 Ill: 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