They make themselves : work and play among the Baining of Papua New Guinea / Jane Fajans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fajans, Jane.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Baining (Papua New Guinean people)--Rites and ceremonies.

Baining (Papua New Guinean people).

Baining (Papua New Guinean people)--Social life and customs.

Baining (Papua New Guinean people)--Socialization.

Social structure--Papua New Guinea--Gazelle Peninsula.

Social structure.

Socialization--Papua New Guinea--Gazelle Peninsula.

Socialization.

Manners and customs.

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

Gazelle Peninsuala (Papua New Guinea).

Papua New Guinea--Gazelle Peninsula.

Physical Description:

xiv, 313 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1997.

Summary:

For generations of anthropologists, the Baining people have presented a challenge because of their apparent lack of cultural or social structure. This group of small-scale cultivators seems devoid of the complex belief systems and social practices that characterize other traditional peoples of Papua New Guinea. Their daily existence is mundane and repetitive in the extreme, articulated by only the most elementary familial relationships and social connections. The tontine of everyday life, however, is occasionally punctuated by stunningly beautiful festivals of masked dancers, which the Baining call play and to which they attribute no symbolic significance. In a new work sure to evoke considerable repercussions and debate in anthropological theory, Jane Fajans courageously takes on the "Baining Problem", arguing that the Baining define themselves not through intricate cosmologies or social networks, but through the meanings generated by their own productive and reproductive work.

Notes:

Revision of the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University, 1985.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-302) and index.

ISBN:

0226234436

0226234444

OCLC:

36008441