Between Culture and Fantasy

A New Guinea Highlands Mythology

By: Gillian Gillison

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Hardcover | 1 July 1993 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
406 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.7 x 16.7 x 2.8

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The myths of the Gimi, a people of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, attribute the origin of death and misery to the incestuous desires of the first woman or man, as if one sex or the other were guilty of the very first misdeed. Working for years among the Gimi, speaking their language, anthropologist Gillian Gillison gained rare insight into these myths and their pervasive influence in the organization of social life. Hers is a fascinating account of relations between the sexes and the role of myth in the transition between unconscious fantasy and cultural forms.
Gillison shows how the themes expressed in Gimi myths--especially sexual hostility and an obsession with menstrual blood--are dramatized in the elaborate public rituals that accompany marriage, death, and other life crises. The separate myths of Gimi women and men seem to speak to one another, to protest, alter, and enlarge upon myths of the other sex. The sexes cast blame in the veiled imagery of myth and then play out their debate in joint rituals, cooperating in shows of conflict and resolution that leave men undefeated and accord women the greater blame for misfortune.

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Sociology & Anthropology Sociology Sociology & Customs & Traditions Society & Culture Popular Beliefs & Controversial Knowledge Folklore Studies / Study of Myth (Mythology)Social Groups Ethnic Studies History Regional & National History Australasian & Pacific History

Gender Studies Archaeology Anthropology Social & Cultural Anthropology, Ethnography

Photographs
Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note on Orthography
Introduction
The Argument among Myths
The Gimi of Highland New Guinea
Cannibalism and the Rites of Death
Gimi Cannibalism in History and in Myth
The Death of a Man in His Prime
The Death of a Man, Part II: Women Convert the Man to Decorations
Women's Work and the World They Hide
"Songs Hold the Spirit": Garden Magic, Blood Songs, and the Nature of Women's Work
Theories of Conception: Alternative Outcomes in a Intrauterine Scenario
Rituals of Childhood Death and Birth: Men's First Exchanges Outside the Mother
Marriage and Male Initiation
The Myth of the Flutes and Principles of Exchange
The World of Sorcery
"Only Men Understand Sorcery"
The Rites of Cure
Conclusion
Myth as Ultimate Reality
Appendix: Kinship Terminology
Glossary of Gimi Terms
Bibliography
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Between Culture and Fantasy

A New Guinea Highlands Mythology

At a Glance

Hardcover

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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