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Overview
In developing regions of the world, understanding how indigenous populations manifest their worldviews is imperative before implementing new social policies. Building on three decades of studies of Melanesia by ethnologists, the authors argue that these societies' worldviews assume that the process of flow between events, rather than the nature of the events, is critical to a model of human sociality.Synopsis
Attempts to go beyond the idiosyncratic nature of myths in these Papua New Guinea societies and cast the debate about the role of myth in more philosophical terms.
Booknews
Eight Australian and US contributors expand the literature on the Western Highland societies, of fascination due to the relatively recent "discovery" of nearly a million culturally distinct people coinciding with the field work boom in anthropology. Drawn from conferences convened by one of the authors (Biersack; 1991, 1994: Canberra), this ethnography describes the variability<--> internally and longitudinally<-->of such Melanesian groups from diverse theoretical perspectives. Myths (e.g. of tricksters, genesis, and regeneration) are analyzed as reflections of social roles, moral topography, and changing geographies of power and spiritual influence. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.