Creative land : place and procreation on the Rai Coast of Papua New Guinea / James Leach.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leach, James, 1969- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nekgini (Papua New Guinean people)--Kinship.

Nekgini (Papua New Guinean people)--Economic conditions.

Human ecology--Papua New Guinea--Madang Province.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xx, 236 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

New York ; Oxford : Berghahn Books, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What is creative in kinship? How are people connected to places? James Leach answers these questions through formulating “creativity” as an integral part of kinship on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. The book contains a new critique of the genealogical model of kinship, suggesting that this model prevents us from grasping the way generative relations, including those to land and place, constitute persons on the Rai Coast. Analytic attention is focused upon the life cycle, marriage, exchange and artistic production as the activities in which substantial connection is generated. The argument, made in relation to detailed ethnography, yields a fresh perspective on the connections people trace to each other.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: List of Maps, Figures, Tables, and Photographs ix

Acknowledgements xi

Notes on the Text xv

Preface xvii

Introduction 1

The Rai Coast 1

Chapter 1: Process and Kinship 21

Kinship, Process, and Creativity 22

Cognation and Flexibility 26

An Alternative to the Genealogical Model 29

The Palem 31

Chapter 2: Residence History and Palem 33

Hamlets Past and Present 33

Hamlets as Social Groups 41

The Labours of Lawrence 49

Complexity 52

Chapter 3: Marrying Sisters 57

Defining Relationships 57

Myths and Explanations 75

Chapter 4: Gardens, Land, and Growth 91

Origin Points 92

Gendered Productivity: The Tambaran 93

Households and Gardens 100

Gardening, not 'Production' 101

Gardens, Land, and Substance 114

Male Continuity, Female Movement 118

Chapter 5: Birth, Emergence, and Exchange 127

The Transactions Between Affinal Kin Focused on Children 128

Mother's Brothers in the Anthropological Literature 143

Affinal Payments and Lineality in Reite 145

Visibility and Recognition 151

Chapter 6: Spirit, Flesh, and Bone 159

The Palem as a Body 159

Performing Places. People and Spirits as Land Made Mobile 177

Chapter 7: Places and Bodies, Landscape and Perception 193

The Concept of Landscape in Anthropology 196

Hearing and Vision as Sensory Modalities 201

Landscape in the Nekgini Lifeworld 206

Chapter 8: Creative Land 211

Land, Place, and Person 211

Simple Principles, Complex Process 215

Creativity 216

Glossary 219

References 221

Index 229.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-228) and index.

ISBN:

1-78920-583-2

1-57181-693-3

1-57181-556-2