Talking it through : responses to sorcery and witchcraft beliefs and practices in Melanesia / edited by Miranda Forsyth and Richard Eves.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forsyth, Miranda

Contributor:

Forsyth, Miranda, editor.

Eves, Richard, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Witchcraft--Melanesia.

Witchcraft.

Witchcraft--Papua New Guinea.

Melanesia--Social life and customs.

Melanesia.

Papua New Guinea--Social life and customs.

Papua New Guinea.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (334 pages): illustrations, charts

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

ANU Press 2015

Canberra, Australia : Australian National University Press, [2015].

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Text file

Summary:

Sorcery and witchcraft practices and beliefs are pervasive across Melanesia. They are in part created by, and give rise to, a wide variety of poor social and developmental outcomes. These include uneven economic development, low public health, lack of social cohesion, crime, fear and insecurity. A further very visible problem is the attacks on men and women who are accused of being practitioners of witchcraft or sorcery, which can lead to serious bodily harm, banishment and sometimes death. Today, many communities, individuals, church organisations and policymakers in Melanesia and internationally are exploring ways to overcome the negative social outcomes associated with witchcraft and sorcery practices and beliefs. This book brings together a collection of chapters written by a diverse range of authors, both Melanesian and non-Melanesian, providing crucial insights both into how these practices and beliefs are playing out in contemporary Melanesia, and also the types of interventions that are being trialled or debated to address the problems associated with them.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Foreword: Sorcery- and Witchcraft-Related Killings in Papua New Guinea

The Problems and Victims of Sorcery and Witchcraft Practices and Beliefs in Melanesia: An Introduction

1. The Spread of Sorcery Killing and its Social Implications

2. Sorcery, Christianity and the Decline of Medical Services

3. Witchcraft, Sorcery, Violence: Matrilineal and Decolonial Reflections

4. Sorcery and Witchcraft as a Negative Force on Economic and Social Development in Solomon Islands

5. Huli Customary Beliefs and Tribal Laws about Witches and Witch Spirits

6. Talking Sanguma: The Social Process of Discernment of Evil in Two Sepik Societies

7. The Haus Man Cleansing at Nahu Rawa

8. 'The Land Will Eat You': Land and Sorcery in North Efate, Vanuatu

9. Sorcery, Poison and Politics: Strategies of Self-Positioning in South Malekula, Vanuatu

10. The Courts, the Churches, the Witches and their Killers

11. The Western Legal Response to Sorcery in Colonial Papua New Guinea

12. A Pluralist Response to the Regulation of Sorcery and Witchcraft in Melanesia

13. Sorcery- and Witchcraft-Related Killings in Papua New Guinea: The Criminal Justice System Response

14. Sorcery Violence in Bougainville Through the Lens of Human Rights Law: A Critical View

15. The Belief in Sorcery in Solomon Islands

16. Kumo Koimbo: Accounts and Responses to Witchcraft in Gor, Simbu Province

17. Practical Church Interventions on Sorcery and Witchcraft Violence in the Papua New Guinea Highlands

Author Biographies.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references at the end of each chapters.

CC BY-NC-ND

ISBN:

1-925021-57-2

OCLC:

904979217

Publisher Number:

https://doi.org/10.26530/OAPEN_569113