Bibliograph

South coast New Guinea cultures, history, comparison, dialectic, Bruce M. Knauft

Type

Label

South coast New Guinea cultures, history, comparison, dialectic, Bruce M. Knauft

Language

eng

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

South coast New Guinea cultures

Medium

electronic resource

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Oclc number

715182060

Responsibility statement

Bruce M. Knauft

Series statement

Cambridge studies in social and cultural anthropology, 89Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

Sub title

history, comparison, dialectic

Summary

The communities of south coast New Guinea were the subject of classic ethnographies, and fresh studies in recent decades have put these rich and complex cultures at the centre of anthropological debates. Flamboyant sexual practices, such as ritual homosexuality, have attracted particular interest. In the first general book on the region, Dr Knauft reaches striking new comparative conclusions through a careful ethnographic analysis of sexuality, the status of women, ritual and cosmology, political economy, and violence among the region's seven major language-culture areas. The findings suggest new Melanesian regional contrasts and provide for a general critique of the way regional comparisons are constructed in anthropology. Theories of practice and political economy as well as post-modern insights are drawn upon to provide a generative theory of indigenous social and symbolic development.--, Provided by publisher

Creator