Dream travelers : sleep experiences and culture in the western Pacific / [edited by] Roger Ivar Lohmann.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lohmann, Roger Ivar, 1962-

Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. Meetings.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dreams--Melanesia--Cross-cultural studies.

Dreams.

Dreams--Australia--Cross-cultural studies.

Dream interpretation--Cross-cultural studies.

Dream interpretation.

Ethnology--Melanesia.

Ethnology.

Melanesia.

Aboriginal Australians--Social life and customs.

Aboriginal Australians.

Australia.

Genre:

Cross-cultural studies.

Physical Description:

x, 246 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Summary:

In Dreams, Part of the Self Seems to Wander Off to Undertake both mundane tasks and marvelous adventures. Anthropologists have found that many peoples take this experience of dreaming at face value, assuming that their spirits literally leave the body to travel, meet other spirits, and acquire valuable knowledge -- with dramatic consequences for relationships, social organization, and religions. This book is about Melanesian, Aboriginal Australian, and Indonesian peoples who hold this assumption. Several leading anthropologists contribute theoretically and ethnographically rich chapters showing that attention to these peoples' dream lives deeply enhances our understanding of their cultures and waking lives as well.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Dream Travels and Anthropology / Roger Ivar Lohmann 1

2 Dreaming and the Defeat of Charisma: Disconnecting Dreams from Leadership among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea / Joel Robbins 19

3 Dreaming and Ghosts among the Hagen and Duna of the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea / Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew J. Strathern 43

4 Dreamscapes: Transcending the Local in Initiation Rites among the Ngaing of Papua New Guinea / Wolfgang Kempf, Elfriede Hermann 61

5 Ambrymese Dreams and the Mardu Dreaming / Robert Tonkinson 87

6 "This Is Good Country. We Are Good Dreamers": Dreams and Dreaming in the Australian Western Desert / Sylvie Poirier 107

7 Dreams, Agency, and Traditional Authority in Northeast Arnhem Land / Ian Keen 127

8 Tiwi Island Dreams / Jane C. Goodale 149

9 The Cultural and Intersubjective Context of Dream Remembrance and Reporting: Dreams, Aging, and the Anthropological Encounter in Toraja, Indonesia / Douglas Hollan 169

10 Supernatural Encounters of the Asabano in Two Traditions and Three States of Consciousness / Roger Ivar Lohmann 189

11 Afterword: Beyond the Mythologies: A Shape of Dreaming / Waud Kracke 211.

Notes:

"Result of sessions at two meetings of the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania"--Pref.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1403963223

1403963304

OCLC:

51647777