Cosmologies in the making : a generative approach to cultural variation in inner New Guinea

Barth, Fredrik

ISBN 10: 0521342791 / ISBN 13: 9780521342797

Edité par Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987

A propos de cet article

Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper. Particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Physical Description; xi, 99 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm. Summary; In this book, Fredrik Barth examines the changes that have taken place in the secret cosmological lore transmitted in male initiation ceremonies among the Mountain Ok of Inner New Guinea, and offers a new way of explaining how cultural change occurs. Subjects; Case studies. Culture diffusion. Culture diffusion Case studies. Ethnology Papua New Guinea. Manners and customs. New Guinea Society - Anthropological perspectives. Ok (Papua New Guinean people) Religion. Ok (Papua New Guinean people) Social life and customs. Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea Social life and customs. Rites and ceremonies Papua New Guinea. Social change. Social change Case studies. Social change Papua New Guinea. 1 Kg. N° de réf. du vendeur 424796

Détails bibliographiques

Titre : Cosmologies in the making : a generative ...

Éditeur : Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

Date d'édition : 1987

Reliure : Couverture rigide

Edition : 1st edition.

A propos de ce titre

Présentation de l'éditeur:

All culture, particularly that of non-literate traditions, is constantly being recreated, and in the process also undergoes changes. In this book, Fredrik Barth examines the changes that have taken place in the secret cosmological lore transmitted in male initiation ceremonies among the Mountain Ok of Inner New Guinea, and offers a new way of explaining how cultural change occurs. Professor Barth focuses in particular on accounting for the local variations in cosmological traditions that exist among the Ok people, who otherwise share similar material and ecological conditions, and similar languages. Rejecting existing anthropological theory as inadequate for explaining this, Professor Barth constructs a new model of the mechanisms of change, based on his close empirical observation of the processes of cultural transmission. This model emphasises the role of individual creativity in cultural reproduction and change, and maintains that cosmologies can be adequately understood only if they are regarded as knowledge in the process of communication, embedded in social organization, rather than as fixed bodies of belief. From the model he derives various theoretically grounded hypotheses regarding the probable courses of change that would be generated by such mechanisms. He then goes on to show that these hypotheses fit the actual patterns of variation that are found among the Ok.