Explorations in Anthropology
2 total works
This text, translated from the French original, explores the culture of the Yafar, a hunter-gatherer society in the West Sepik province of Papua New Guinea. It offers a detailed explanation of all aspects of a society whose material and cultural relations with its rain forest environment is based on a carefully negotiated relationship with natural forces and on the complementary relationship between the sexes. The author shows how these concepts can be found in the ritualized and institutional aspects of the Yafar's social life, as well as in their mythology. The book fully documents the Yafar's complex ritual involving a symbolic exchange with the spirit world, a secret cult, and curing rites presided over by hereditary religious officials. The author's analysis of Yafar ideologies reveals that sexual reproduction is the key to their society, the model for continuity and regeneration prescribed by nature.
This fascinating book, translated from the French, explores the Yafar society, a forest people living by shifting cultivation, hunting and gathering. Based on fifteen years of research, it offers a detailed examination of all aspects of a society whose material and nutritional relations with their rainforest environment are mediated by a sociocultural system based on a carefully negotiated relationship with natural forces, and harmony between the sexes. The author shows how these basic ideas can be found in the ritualized and institutional aspects of the Yafar's social life, as well as their mythology. Rich in detail and insight, this book fully documents the Yafar's complex ritual involving a symbolic exchange with the spirit world, a secret cult, and curing rites presided over by hereditary religious officials. The author's analysis of Yafar ideologies reveals that sexual reproduction is the key to their society and the model for continuity and regeneration prescribed by nature.