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How do images circulating in Pacific cultures and exchanged between
them and their many visitors transform meanings for all involved?
This fascinating collection explores how through mimesis, wayfarers
and locales alike borrow images from one another to expand their
cultural repertoire of meanings or borrow images from their own
past to validate their identities.
This book presents new directions in contemporary anthropological
dream research, surveying recent theorizations of dreaming that are
developing both in and outside of anthropology. It incorporates new
findings in neuroscience and philosophy of mind while demonstrating
that dreams emerge from and comment on sociohistorical and cultural
contexts. The chapters are written by prominent anthropologists
working at the intersection of culture and consciousness who
conduct ethnographic research in a variety of settings around the
world, and reflect how dreaming is investigated by a range of
informants in ever more diverse sites. As well as theorizing the
dream in light of current anthropological and psychological
research, the volume accounts for local dream theories and how they
are situated within distinct cultural ontologies. It considers
dreams as a resource for investigating and understanding cultural
change; dreaming as a mode of thinking through, contesting,
altering, consolidating, or escaping from identity; and the nature
of dream mentation. In proposing new theoretical approaches to
dreaming, the editors situate the topic within the recent call for
an "anthropology of the night" and illustrate how dreams offer
insight into current debates within anthropology's mainstream. This
up-to-date book defines a twenty-first century approach to culture
and the dream that will be relevant to scholars from anthropology
as well as other disciplines such as religious studies, the
neurosciences, and psychology.
The insular Pacific is a region saturated with great cultural
diversity and poignant memories of colonial and Christian
intrusion. Considering authenticity and authorship in the area,
this book looks at how these ideas have manifested themselves in
Pacific peoples and cultures. Through six rich complementary case
studies, a theoretical introduction, and a critical afterword, this
volume explores authenticity and authorship as "traveling
concepts." The book reveals diverse and surprising outcomes which
shed light on how Pacific identity has changed from the past to the
present.
This book presents new directions in contemporary anthropological
dream research, surveying recent theorizations of dreaming that are
developing both in and outside of anthropology. It incorporates new
findings in neuroscience and philosophy of mind while demonstrating
that dreams emerge from and comment on sociohistorical and cultural
contexts. The chapters are written by prominent anthropologists
working at the intersection of culture and consciousness who
conduct ethnographic research in a variety of settings around the
world, and reflect how dreaming is investigated by a range of
informants in ever more diverse sites. As well as theorizing the
dream in light of current anthropological and psychological
research, the volume accounts for local dream theories and how they
are situated within distinct cultural ontologies. It considers
dreams as a resource for investigating and understanding cultural
change; dreaming as a mode of thinking through, contesting,
altering, consolidating, or escaping from identity; and the nature
of dream mentation. In proposing new theoretical approaches to
dreaming, the editors situate the topic within the recent call for
an "anthropology of the night" and illustrate how dreams offer
insight into current debates within anthropology's mainstream. This
up-to-date book defines a twenty-first century approach to culture
and the dream that will be relevant to scholars from anthropology
as well as other disciplines such as religious studies, the
neurosciences, and psychology.
"Spirits in Culture, History and Mind" reintegrates spirits into
comparative theories of religion, which have tended to focus on
institutionalized forms of belief associated with gods. It brings
an historical perspective to culturally patterned experiences with
spirits, and examines spirits as a locus of tension between
traditional and foreign values. Taking as a point of departure
shifting local views of self, nine case studies drawn from Pacific
societies analyze religious phenomena at the intersection of
social, psychological and historical processes. The varied
approaches taken in these case studies provide a richness of
perspective, with each lens illuminating different aspects of
spirit-related experience. All, however, bring a sense of
historical process to bear on psychological and symbolic approaches
to religion, shedding new light on the ways spirits relate to other
cultural phenomena.
Included is a provocative theoretical chapter, co-authored by
Robert Levy and the editors. Unabashedly comparative at a time when
most anthropologists confine themselves to interpreting local
meanings, this chapter argues for a distinction between god-like
and spirit-like beings, with gods representing the moral order
while spirits are countered at its periphery. Issues associated
with morality, power, control, conformity, possession, selfhood,
the uncanny, and the impingement of high religions on folk beliefs,
among others, are addressed in this chapter.
The conclusion, by Michael Lambek, also excites controversy.
Reflecting on the ethnographic material included in the volume,
Lambek draws attention to the importance of understanding
spirit-related experiences, in their historicalcontexts, for coming
to grips with the very nature of religion.
"Spirits in Culture, History and Mind" reintegrates spirits into
comparative theories of religion, which have tended to focus on
institutionalized forms of belief associated with gods. It brings
an historical perspective to culturally patterned experiences with
spirits, and examines spirits as a locus of tension between
traditional and foreign values. Taking as a point of departure
shifting local views of self, nine case studies drawn from Pacific
societies analyze religious phenomena at the intersection of
social, psychological and historical processes. The varied
approaches taken in these case studies provide a richness of
perspective, with each lens illuminating different aspects of
spirit-related experience. All, however, bring a sense of
historical process to bear on psychological and symbolic approaches
to religion, shedding new light on the ways spirits relate to other
cultural phenomena.
Included is a provocative theoretical chapter, co-authored by
Robert Levy and the editors. Unabashedly comparative at a time when
most anthropologists confine themselves to interpreting local
meanings, this chapter argues for a distinction between god-like
and spirit-like beings, with gods representing the moral order
while spirits are countered at its periphery. Issues associated
with morality, power, control, conformity, possession, selfhood,
the uncanny, and the impingement of high religions on folk beliefs,
among others, are addressed in this chapter.
The conclusion, by Michael Lambek, also excites controversy.
Reflecting on the ethnographic material included in the volume,
Lambek draws attention to the importance of understanding
spirit-related experiences, in their historicalcontexts, for coming
to grips with the very nature of religion.
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