How have the Aluni Valley Duna people of Papua New Guinea responded to the challenges of colonial and post-colonial changes that have entered their lifeworld since the middle of the Twentieth-Century? Living in a corner of the world influenced by mining companies but relatively neglected in terms of government-sponsored development, these people have dealt creatively with forces of change by redeploying their own mythological themes about the cosmos in order to make claims on outside corporations and by subtly combining features of their customary practices with forms of Christianity, attempting to empower their past as a means of confronting the future.

Autorentext

Author Pamela J. Stewart: Pamela J. Stewart is Senior Research Associate in Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.

Inhalt

About the Authors Preface Introduction Place and Problem Flexible Groups Forces of Change Leaders and Speech-Making Myth, Ritual, and Change The Duna in Regional Context Concepts of Tradition and Change Empowering the Past? Change Among The Duna: A Synopsis and Some Wider Implications References