Arrow talk
Subtitle: transaction, transition, and contradiction in New Guinea highlands history
By: Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart.
Contributors: Stewart, Pamela J.
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Kent, Ohio
Language: eng
Number of pages: 216
Subjects: Medlpa (Papua New Guinea people) -- Commerce.; Medlpa (Papua New Guinea people) -- Politics and government.; Speeches, addresses, etc., Medlpa.; Political oratory -- Papua New Guinea -- Western Highlands Province.; Ceremonial exchange -- Papua New Guinea -- Western Highlands Province.; Social change -- Papua New Guinea -- Western Highlands Province.; Western Highlands Province (Papua New Guinea) -- Social life and customs.
Description: "Arrow Talk makes a significant contribution to the understanding of Melanesian culture and contemporary sociopolitical issues in Papua New Guinea. In a post-modern 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."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 198-208) and index.