The Work of the Gods in Tikopia
Subtitle: Second Edition
By: Raymond Firth
Edition: 1st.
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021
Language: eng
Number of pages: 292
ISBN-13: 9781000324655; 9781003136156; 9781000321234; 9781000323535
Subjects: Tikopia (Solomon Islands people); Rites and ceremonies; Tikopia (Peuple des îles Salomon); Rites et cérémonies; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General
Description: First published in 1939 and long out of print, this book remains unique as the only full and detailed account by a social anthropologist of a complete pagan Polynesian ritual cycle. This new single-volume edition omits some of the Tikopia vernacular texts, but includes a new theoretical introduction; postscripts have also been supplied to some of the chapters comparing the performances of 1928-9 with those witnessed by Professor Firth on his second visit to Tikopia in 1952. There is a specially written Epilogue on the final eclipse of the traditional ritual, based on a third visit by the author during the summer of 1966.
Notes: Legal Deposit; Only available on premises controlled by the deposit library and to one user at any one time; The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK).

Raymond Firth is Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Table of contents: title: 1.; title: General character of the work of the Gods -- -- 2.; title: throwing the firestick -- -- 3.; title: Ritual of the sacred canoes -- -- 4.; title: The work of the yam -- -- 5.; title: Re-carpeting the ancestral temples -- -- 6.; title: Freeing the land -- -- 7.; title: The proclamation at Rarokoka -- -- 8.; title: The dance to quell the wind -- -- 9.; title: The dance of the flaming fire -- -- 10.; title: Deserted Gods in Takarito -- -- 11.; title: The work of Somosomo and Fiora -- -- 12.; title: The ritual extraction of turmeric -- -- 13.; title: The final rites.