In the midst of life : affect and ideation in the world of the Tolai / A.L. Epstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Epstein, A. L. (Arnold Leonard)

Series:

Studies in Melanesian anthropology ; 9.

Studies in Melanesian anthropology ; 9

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tolai (Melanesian people)--Psychology.

Tolai (Melanesian people).

Tolai (Melanesian people)--Social life and customs.

Philosophy, Tolai.

Ethnopsychology--Papua New Guinea--Gazelle Peninsula (New Britain Island).

Ethnopsychology.

Emotions.

Affect (Psychology).

Gazelle Peninsula (Papua New Guinea)--Social life and customs.

Gazelle Peninsula (Papua New Guinea).

Papua New Guinea--Gazelle Peninsula.

Physical Description:

x, 317 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [1992]

Summary:

The Tolai are among the most distinctive of Papua New Guinea's indigenous peoples. For all their success in the pursuit of modernity, the Tolai remain traditional in their attitudes toward death, the cultural elaboration of which colors almost every aspect of their existence.

In his new book, A. L. Epstein develops an emotional profile of the Tolai, contending that societies are distinguished as much by the shape of their emotional life as they are by their social arrangements and cultural styles. Epstein describes a wide range of mourning ceremonies and other more and less public occasions. By investigating not only the words that stand for emotions but also the way affect enters into and informs people's conduct, he charts a new course for ethnography that seeks to integrate the study of the emotions into anthropological analysis.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 299-309) and index.

ISBN:

0520075625

OCLC:

24430555