Arrow Talk: Transaction, Transition and Contradiction in New Guinea Highlands History

Arrow Talk makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Melanesian culture and contemporary sociopolitical issues in Papua New Guinea. In a postmodern era in which culture has been dismissed by many anthropologists as a reification, this book makes a cogent argument for cultural holism by showing how symbolic, psychological, religious, and linguistic factors have combined to shape Melpa responses to the political and economic crises they have had to face in the waning years of the millennium. This analysis also contributes notably to the development of anthropological perspectives on colonial and postcolonial historical processes. Since the Melpa face many of the same challenges as other "modernizing" people in the Pacific and elsewhere, Strathern and Stewart's insights are valuable for scholars working on similar problems in a variety of ethnographic regions.


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