ISBN:
978-3-86395-422-2
ISSN:
2199-5346
Language:
English
Pages:
392 Seiten, 2 Faltblätter
,
Illustrationen, Karten
Series Statement:
Göttingen Series in Social and Cultural Anthropology volume 16
Keywords:
Papua-Neuguinea Sepik
;
Iatmul
;
Frau
;
Frau und sozio-ökonomische Rolle
;
Lebenszyklus
;
Initiation
;
Heirat
;
Geburt
;
Ritual
;
Ritual und Zeremonie
;
Beziehungen Mann-Frau
;
Mythos
;
Geschlechterforschung
Abstract:
The book offers a glimpse back in time to a Middle Sepik society, the Iatmul, first investigated by the anthropologist Gregory Bateson in the late 1920s while the feminist anthropologist Margaret Mead worked on sex roles among the neighbouring Tchambuli (Chambri) people. The author lived in the Iatmul village of Kararau in 1972/3 where she studied women's lives, works, and knowledge in detail. She revisited the Sepik in 2015 and 2017. The book, the translation of a 1977 publication in German, is complemented by two chapters dealing with the life of the Iatmul in the 2010s. It presents rich quantitative and qualitative data on subsistence economy, marriage, and women's knowledge concerning myths and rituals. Besides, life histories and in-depth interviews convey deep insights into women's experiences and feelings, especially regarding their varied relationships with men in the early 1970s. Since then, Iatmul culture has changed in many respects, especially as far as the economy, religion, knowledge, and the relationship between men and women are concerned. In her afterword, the anthropologist Christiane Falck highlights some of the major topics raised in the book from a 2018 perspective, based on her own fieldwork which she commenced in 2012. Thus, the book provides the reader with detailed information about gendered lives in this riverine village of the 1970s and an understanding of the cultural processes and dynamics that have taken place since. (Umschlagtext)
Description / Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements --1 Introduction: After Almost 50 Years. 1.1 The Middle Sepik and previous anthropological studies. 1.2 A documentation of the past, and new studies. 1.3 A comparative glimpse back -- Part One: Women and Subsistence Economy -- 2 The Village -- 3 Sources of Subsistence. 3.1 Fishing. 3.2 Fish survey. 3.3 Overview of the most important trade relations with other villages. 3.4 Sago and the sago market with Gaikorobi. 3.5 Significance of the market with Gaikorobi for Kararau's subsistence. 3.6 Kararau's further trade relations. 3.7 Cultivation. 3.8 Hunting and animal husbandry -- Part Two: Women in Love and Marriage -- 4 Getting Married. 4.1 Run-up to marriage. 4.2 Ideal marriage relationships. 4.3 Marriage rules and actual marital relations in comparison. 4.4 Bridewealth. 4.5 The relationship between wife givers and wife takers. 4.6 Marriage as described in a myth. 4.7 Duties and rules of conduct after marriage. 4.8 The relationship between brother and sister and between husband and wife. 4.9 Spatial division of the house -- 5 Conception, Pregnancy and Birth: Concepts and Practices. 5.1 The significance of birth in Iatmul thought. 5.2 The post-partum period -- 6 The Relationship Between Husband and Wife. 6.1 Polygyny. 6.2 Divorce. 6.3 Changes in the course of a woman's life -- Part Three: Women, the Realm of Men, and the World Beyond -- 7 Sorcery and Witchcraft -- 8 Women and the Realm of Male Rituals -- 9 Familiarity with Kinship Terminology -- 10 Women and Headhunting -- 11 Women in Myths and the Mythologeme of the Inverted World -- 12 Women Who Became Initiated by Men. 12.1 Initiation as a mark of excellence. 12.2 Initiation as a means of stigmatization. 12.3 Memories of an earlier women's initiation. 12.4 Imitating male initiation scarification -- Part Four: Self-Portrayals -- 13 Life Histories of Women and Men. 13.1 Life histories of women. 13.2 Life histories of men. 13.3 Comparing the life histories of women and men -- Part Five: The Relationship Between Men and Women in Myths -- 14 Gender Relationships as Described in Myths and the Way in Which ese Are Narrated by Men and Women. 14.1 Findings from the myth analysis -- Concluding Summary (revised) -- Afterword -- "Cultural Change in the Sepik" by Christiane Falck -- Conclusion -- References -- Index -- Appendix: Kinship Terminology Chart
Note:
Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 371-378 "translating my PhD thesis into English" (Acknowledgements, Seite 12)
,
PhD Thesis, Philosophisch-historische Fakultät, Universität Basel, 1975, entitled Frauen in Kararau: zur Rolle der Frau bei den Iatmul am Mittelsepik, Papua New Guinea
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