19 results
Sacred Revenge in Oceania
- Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern
-
- Published online:
- 01 December 2018
- Print publication:
- 29 November 2018
-
- Element
- Export citation
-
Revenge is an important motivation in human affairs relating to conflict and violence, and it is a notable feature in many societies within Oceania, where revenge is traditionally a sacred duty to the dead whose spirits demand it. Revenge instantiates a norm of reciprocity in the cosmos, ensuring a balance between violent and peaceful sequences of ritual action. Revenge further remains an important hidden factor in processes of violence beyond Oceania, revealing deep human propensities for retaliatory acts and the tendency to elevate these into principles of legitimacy. Sacred revenge may also be transcended through practices of wealth exchange.
Contributing Authors
-
- By Caroline (Cal) Baier-Anderson, Larry Binning, Dominique Brossard, Alvin J. Bussan, Anthony J. Cavalieri, Jason R. Cavatorta, Jed Colquhoun, José Falck-Zepeda, Gregory D. Graff, Stewart M. Gray, The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Russell Groves, Michelle Mauthe Harvey, Molly M. Jahn, Shelley Jansky, Jiming Jiang, Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes, Keith Kelling, Deana Knuteson, Peggy G. Lemaux, Marty D. Matlock, William H. Meyers, Paul D. Mitchell, William Muir, Pamela Ronald, Matt Ruark, Eric S. Sachs, Mark K. Sears, Erin Silva, Walter R. Stevenson, Alison Van Eenennaam, Jeffrey D. Wolt, Jeff Wyman, David Zilberman
- Edited by Jennie S. Popp, University of Arkansas, Molly M. Jahn, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Marty D. Matlock, University of Arkansas, Nathan P. Kemper, University of Arkansas
-
- Book:
- The Role of Biotechnology in a Sustainable Food Supply
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 31 January 2012, pp xiv-xviii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Contributors
-
- By Rose Teteki Abbey, K. C. Abraham, David Tuesday Adamo, LeRoy H. Aden, Efrain Agosto, Victor Aguilan, Gillian T. W. Ahlgren, Charanjit Kaur AjitSingh, Dorothy B E A Akoto, Giuseppe Alberigo, Daniel E. Albrecht, Ruth Albrecht, Daniel O. Aleshire, Urs Altermatt, Anand Amaladass, Michael Amaladoss, James N. Amanze, Lesley G. Anderson, Thomas C. Anderson, Victor Anderson, Hope S. Antone, María Pilar Aquino, Paula Arai, Victorio Araya Guillén, S. Wesley Ariarajah, Ellen T. Armour, Brett Gregory Armstrong, Atsuhiro Asano, Naim Stifan Ateek, Mahmoud Ayoub, John Alembillah Azumah, Mercedes L. García Bachmann, Irena Backus, J. Wayne Baker, Mieke Bal, Lewis V. Baldwin, William Barbieri, António Barbosa da Silva, David Basinger, Bolaji Olukemi Bateye, Oswald Bayer, Daniel H. Bays, Rosalie Beck, Nancy Elizabeth Bedford, Guy-Thomas Bedouelle, Chorbishop Seely Beggiani, Wolfgang Behringer, Christopher M. Bellitto, Byard Bennett, Harold V. Bennett, Teresa Berger, Miguel A. Bernad, Henley Bernard, Alan E. Bernstein, Jon L. Berquist, Johannes Beutler, Ana María Bidegain, Matthew P. Binkewicz, Jennifer Bird, Joseph Blenkinsopp, Dmytro Bondarenko, Paulo Bonfatti, Riet en Pim Bons-Storm, Jessica A. Boon, Marcus J. Borg, Mark Bosco, Peter C. Bouteneff, François Bovon, William D. Bowman, Paul S. Boyer, David Brakke, Richard E. Brantley, Marcus Braybrooke, Ian Breward, Ênio José da Costa Brito, Jewel Spears Brooker, Johannes Brosseder, Nicholas Canfield Read Brown, Robert F. Brown, Pamela K. Brubaker, Walter Brueggemann, Bishop Colin O. Buchanan, Stanley M. Burgess, Amy Nelson Burnett, J. Patout Burns, David B. Burrell, David Buttrick, James P. Byrd, Lavinia Byrne, Gerado Caetano, Marcos Caldas, Alkiviadis Calivas, William J. Callahan, Salvatore Calomino, Euan K. Cameron, William S. Campbell, Marcelo Ayres Camurça, Daniel F. Caner, Paul E. Capetz, Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi, Patrick W. Carey, Barbara Carvill, Hal Cauthron, Subhadra Mitra Channa, Mark D. Chapman, James H. Charlesworth, Kenneth R. Chase, Chen Zemin, Luciano Chianeque, Philip Chia Phin Yin, Francisca H. Chimhanda, Daniel Chiquete, John T. Chirban, Soobin Choi, Robert Choquette, Mita Choudhury, Gerald Christianson, John Chryssavgis, Sejong Chun, Esther Chung-Kim, Charles M. A. Clark, Elizabeth A. Clark, Sathianathan Clarke, Fred Cloud, John B. Cobb, W. Owen Cole, John A Coleman, John J. Collins, Sylvia Collins-Mayo, Paul K. Conkin, Beth A. Conklin, Sean Connolly, Demetrios J. Constantelos, Michael A. Conway, Paula M. Cooey, Austin Cooper, Michael L. Cooper-White, Pamela Cooper-White, L. William Countryman, Sérgio Coutinho, Pamela Couture, Shannon Craigo-Snell, James L. Crenshaw, David Crowner, Humberto Horacio Cucchetti, Lawrence S. Cunningham, Elizabeth Mason Currier, Emmanuel Cutrone, Mary L. Daniel, David D. Daniels, Robert Darden, Rolf Darge, Isaiah Dau, Jeffry C. Davis, Jane Dawson, Valentin Dedji, John W. de Gruchy, Paul DeHart, Wendy J. Deichmann Edwards, Miguel A. De La Torre, George E. Demacopoulos, Thomas de Mayo, Leah DeVun, Beatriz de Vasconcellos Dias, Dennis C. Dickerson, John M. Dillon, Luis Miguel Donatello, Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev, Susanna Drake, Jonathan A. Draper, N. Dreher Martin, Otto Dreydoppel, Angelyn Dries, A. J. Droge, Francis X. D'Sa, Marilyn Dunn, Nicole Wilkinson Duran, Rifaat Ebied, Mark J. Edwards, William H. Edwards, Leonard H. Ehrlich, Nancy L. Eiesland, Martin Elbel, J. Harold Ellens, Stephen Ellingson, Marvin M. Ellison, Robert Ellsberg, Jean Bethke Elshtain, Eldon Jay Epp, Peter C. Erb, Tassilo Erhardt, Maria Erling, Noel Leo Erskine, Gillian R. Evans, Virginia Fabella, Michael A. Fahey, Edward Farley, Margaret A. Farley, Wendy Farley, Robert Fastiggi, Seena Fazel, Duncan S. Ferguson, Helwar Figueroa, Paul Corby Finney, Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald, Thomas E. FitzGerald, John R. Fitzmier, Marie Therese Flanagan, Sabina Flanagan, Claude Flipo, Ronald B. Flowers, Carole Fontaine, David Ford, Mary Ford, Stephanie A. Ford, Jim Forest, William Franke, Robert M. Franklin, Ruth Franzén, Edward H. Friedman, Samuel Frouisou, Lorelei F. Fuchs, Jojo M. Fung, Inger Furseth, Richard R. Gaillardetz, Brandon Gallaher, China Galland, Mark Galli, Ismael García, Tharscisse Gatwa, Jean-Marie Gaudeul, Luis María Gavilanes del Castillo, Pavel L. Gavrilyuk, Volney P. Gay, Metropolitan Athanasios Geevargis, Kondothra M. George, Mary Gerhart, Simon Gikandi, Maurice Gilbert, Michael J. Gillgannon, Verónica Giménez Beliveau, Terryl Givens, Beth Glazier-McDonald, Philip Gleason, Menghun Goh, Brian Golding, Bishop Hilario M. Gomez, Michelle A. Gonzalez, Donald K. Gorrell, Roy Gottfried, Tamara Grdzelidze, Joel B. Green, Niels Henrik Gregersen, Cristina Grenholm, Herbert Griffiths, Eric W. Gritsch, Erich S. Gruen, Christoffer H. Grundmann, Paul H. Gundani, Jon P. Gunnemann, Petre Guran, Vidar L. Haanes, Jeremiah M. Hackett, Getatchew Haile, Douglas John Hall, Nicholas Hammond, Daphne Hampson, Jehu J. Hanciles, Barry Hankins, Jennifer Haraguchi, Stanley S. Harakas, Anthony John Harding, Conrad L. Harkins, J. William Harmless, Marjory Harper, Amir Harrak, Joel F. Harrington, Mark W. Harris, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Van A. Harvey, R. Chris Hassel, Jione Havea, Daniel Hawk, Diana L. Hayes, Leslie Hayes, Priscilla Hayner, S. Mark Heim, Simo Heininen, Richard P. Heitzenrater, Eila Helander, David Hempton, Scott H. Hendrix, Jan-Olav Henriksen, Gina Hens-Piazza, Carter Heyward, Nicholas J. Higham, David Hilliard, Norman A. Hjelm, Peter C. Hodgson, Arthur Holder, M. Jan Holton, Dwight N. Hopkins, Ronnie Po-chia Hsia, Po-Ho Huang, James Hudnut-Beumler, Jennifer S. Hughes, Leonard M. Hummel, Mary E. Hunt, Laennec Hurbon, Mark Hutchinson, Susan E. Hylen, Mary Beth Ingham, H. Larry Ingle, Dale T. Irvin, Jon Isaak, Paul John Isaak, Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Hans Raun Iversen, Margaret C. Jacob, Arthur James, Maria Jansdotter-Samuelsson, David Jasper, Werner G. Jeanrond, Renée Jeffery, David Lyle Jeffrey, Theodore W. Jennings, David H. Jensen, Robin Margaret Jensen, David Jobling, Dale A. Johnson, Elizabeth A. Johnson, Maxwell E. Johnson, Sarah Johnson, Mark D. Johnston, F. Stanley Jones, James William Jones, John R. Jones, Alissa Jones Nelson, Inge Jonsson, Jan Joosten, Elizabeth Judd, Mulambya Peggy Kabonde, Robert Kaggwa, Sylvester Kahakwa, Isaac Kalimi, Ogbu U. Kalu, Eunice Kamaara, Wayne C. Kannaday, Musimbi Kanyoro, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, Frank Kaufmann, Léon Nguapitshi Kayongo, Richard Kearney, Alice A. Keefe, Ralph Keen, Catherine Keller, Anthony J. Kelly, Karen Kennelly, Kathi Lynn Kern, Fergus Kerr, Edward Kessler, George Kilcourse, Heup Young Kim, Kim Sung-Hae, Kim Yong-Bock, Kim Yung Suk, Richard King, Thomas M. King, Robert M. Kingdon, Ross Kinsler, Hans G. Kippenberg, Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Clifton Kirkpatrick, Leonid Kishkovsky, Nadieszda Kizenko, Jeffrey Klaiber, Hans-Josef Klauck, Sidney Knight, Samuel Kobia, Robert Kolb, Karla Ann Koll, Heikki Kotila, Donald Kraybill, Philip D. W. Krey, Yves Krumenacker, Jeffrey Kah-Jin Kuan, Simanga R. Kumalo, Peter Kuzmic, Simon Shui-Man Kwan, Kwok Pui-lan, André LaCocque, Stephen E. Lahey, John Tsz Pang Lai, Emiel Lamberts, Armando Lampe, Craig Lampe, Beverly J. Lanzetta, Eve LaPlante, Lizette Larson-Miller, Ariel Bybee Laughton, Leonard Lawlor, Bentley Layton, Robin A. Leaver, Karen Lebacqz, Archie Chi Chung Lee, Marilyn J. Legge, Hervé LeGrand, D. L. LeMahieu, Raymond Lemieux, Bill J. Leonard, Ellen M. Leonard, Outi Leppä, Jean Lesaulnier, Nantawan Boonprasat Lewis, Henrietta Leyser, Alexei Lidov, Bernard Lightman, Paul Chang-Ha Lim, Carter Lindberg, Mark R. Lindsay, James R. Linville, James C. Livingston, Ann Loades, David Loades, Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole, Lo Lung Kwong, Wati Longchar, Eleazar López, David W. Lotz, Andrew Louth, Robin W. Lovin, William Luis, Frank D. Macchia, Diarmaid N. J. MacCulloch, Kirk R. MacGregor, Marjory A. MacLean, Donald MacLeod, Tomas S. Maddela, Inge Mager, Laurenti Magesa, David G. Maillu, Fortunato Mallimaci, Philip Mamalakis, Kä Mana, Ukachukwu Chris Manus, Herbert Robinson Marbury, Reuel Norman Marigza, Jacqueline Mariña, Antti Marjanen, Luiz C. L. Marques, Madipoane Masenya (ngwan'a Mphahlele), Caleb J. D. Maskell, Steve Mason, Thomas Massaro, Fernando Matamoros Ponce, András Máté-Tóth, Odair Pedroso Mateus, Dinis Matsolo, Fumitaka Matsuoka, John D'Arcy May, Yelena Mazour-Matusevich, Theodore Mbazumutima, John S. McClure, Christian McConnell, Lee Martin McDonald, Gary B. McGee, Thomas McGowan, Alister E. McGrath, Richard J. McGregor, John A. McGuckin, Maud Burnett McInerney, Elsie Anne McKee, Mary B. McKinley, James F. McMillan, Ernan McMullin, Kathleen E. McVey, M. Douglas Meeks, Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon, Ilie Melniciuc-Puica, Everett Mendoza, Raymond A. Mentzer, William W. Menzies, Ina Merdjanova, Franziska Metzger, Constant J. Mews, Marvin Meyer, Carol Meyers, Vasile Mihoc, Gunner Bjerg Mikkelsen, Maria Inêz de Castro Millen, Clyde Lee Miller, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, Alexander Mirkovic, Paul Misner, Nozomu Miyahira, R. W. L. Moberly, Gerald Moede, Aloo Osotsi Mojola, Sunanda Mongia, Rebeca Montemayor, James Moore, Roger E. Moore, Craig E. Morrison O.Carm, Jeffry H. Morrison, Keith Morrison, Wilson J. Moses, Tefetso Henry Mothibe, Mokgethi Motlhabi, Fulata Moyo, Henry Mugabe, Jesse Ndwiga Kanyua Mugambi, Peggy Mulambya-Kabonde, Robert Bruce Mullin, Pamela Mullins Reaves, Saskia Murk Jansen, Heleen L. Murre-Van den Berg, Augustine Musopole, Isaac M. T. Mwase, Philomena Mwaura, Cecilia Nahnfeldt, Anne Nasimiyu Wasike, Carmiña Navia Velasco, Thulani Ndlazi, Alexander Negrov, James B. Nelson, David G. Newcombe, Carol Newsom, Helen J. Nicholson, George W. E. Nickelsburg, Tatyana Nikolskaya, Damayanthi M. A. Niles, Bertil Nilsson, Nyambura Njoroge, Fidelis Nkomazana, Mary Beth Norton, Christian Nottmeier, Sonene Nyawo, Anthère Nzabatsinda, Edward T. Oakes, Gerald O'Collins, Daniel O'Connell, David W. Odell-Scott, Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Kathleen O'Grady, Oyeronke Olajubu, Thomas O'Loughlin, Dennis T. Olson, J. Steven O'Malley, Cephas N. Omenyo, Muriel Orevillo-Montenegro, César Augusto Ornellas Ramos, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, Kenan B. Osborne, Carolyn Osiek, Javier Otaola Montagne, Douglas F. Ottati, Anna May Say Pa, Irina Paert, Jerry G. Pankhurst, Aristotle Papanikolaou, Samuele F. Pardini, Stefano Parenti, Peter Paris, Sung Bae Park, Cristián G. Parker, Raquel Pastor, Joseph Pathrapankal, Daniel Patte, W. Brown Patterson, Clive Pearson, Keith F. Pecklers, Nancy Cardoso Pereira, David Horace Perkins, Pheme Perkins, Edward N. Peters, Rebecca Todd Peters, Bishop Yeznik Petrossian, Raymond Pfister, Peter C. Phan, Isabel Apawo Phiri, William S. F. Pickering, Derrick G. Pitard, William Elvis Plata, Zlatko Plese, John Plummer, James Newton Poling, Ronald Popivchak, Andrew Porter, Ute Possekel, James M. Powell, Enos Das Pradhan, Devadasan Premnath, Jaime Adrían Prieto Valladares, Anne Primavesi, Randall Prior, María Alicia Puente Lutteroth, Eduardo Guzmão Quadros, Albert Rabil, Laurent William Ramambason, Apolonio M. Ranche, Vololona Randriamanantena Andriamitandrina, Lawrence R. Rast, Paul L. Redditt, Adele Reinhartz, Rolf Rendtorff, Pål Repstad, James N. Rhodes, John K. Riches, Joerg Rieger, Sharon H. Ringe, Sandra Rios, Tyler Roberts, David M. Robinson, James M. Robinson, Joanne Maguire Robinson, Richard A. H. Robinson, Roy R. Robson, Jack B. Rogers, Maria Roginska, Sidney Rooy, Rev. Garnett Roper, Maria José Fontelas Rosado-Nunes, Andrew C. Ross, Stefan Rossbach, François Rossier, John D. Roth, John K. Roth, Phillip Rothwell, Richard E. Rubenstein, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Markku Ruotsila, John E. Rybolt, Risto Saarinen, John Saillant, Juan Sanchez, Wagner Lopes Sanchez, Hugo N. Santos, Gerhard Sauter, Gloria L. Schaab, Sandra M. Schneiders, Quentin J. Schultze, Fernando F. Segovia, Turid Karlsen Seim, Carsten Selch Jensen, Alan P. F. Sell, Frank C. Senn, Kent Davis Sensenig, Damían Setton, Bal Krishna Sharma, Carolyn J. Sharp, Thomas Sheehan, N. Gerald Shenk, Christian Sheppard, Charles Sherlock, Tabona Shoko, Walter B. Shurden, Marguerite Shuster, B. Mark Sietsema, Batara Sihombing, Neil Silberman, Clodomiro Siller, Samuel Silva-Gotay, Heikki Silvet, John K. Simmons, Hagith Sivan, James C. Skedros, Abraham Smith, Ashley A. Smith, Ted A. Smith, Daud Soesilo, Pia Søltoft, Choan-Seng (C. S.) Song, Kathryn Spink, Bryan Spinks, Eric O. Springsted, Nicolas Standaert, Brian Stanley, Glen H. Stassen, Karel Steenbrink, Stephen J. Stein, Andrea Sterk, Gregory E. Sterling, Columba Stewart, Jacques Stewart, Robert B. Stewart, Cynthia Stokes Brown, Ken Stone, Anne Stott, Elizabeth Stuart, Monya Stubbs, Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki, David Kwang-sun Suh, Scott W. Sunquist, Keith Suter, Douglas Sweeney, Charles H. Talbert, Shawqi N. Talia, Elsa Tamez, Joseph B. Tamney, Jonathan Y. Tan, Yak-Hwee Tan, Kathryn Tanner, Feiya Tao, Elizabeth S. Tapia, Aquiline Tarimo, Claire Taylor, Mark Lewis Taylor, Bishop Abba Samuel Wolde Tekestebirhan, Eugene TeSelle, M. Thomas Thangaraj, David R. Thomas, Andrew Thornley, Scott Thumma, Marcelo Timotheo da Costa, George E. “Tink” Tinker, Ola Tjørhom, Karen Jo Torjesen, Iain R. Torrance, Fernando Torres-Londoño, Archbishop Demetrios [Trakatellis], Marit Trelstad, Christine Trevett, Phyllis Trible, Johannes Tromp, Paul Turner, Robert G. Tuttle, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Peter Tyler, Anders Tyrberg, Justin Ukpong, Javier Ulloa, Camillus Umoh, Kristi Upson-Saia, Martina Urban, Monica Uribe, Elochukwu Eugene Uzukwu, Richard Vaggione, Gabriel Vahanian, Paul Valliere, T. J. Van Bavel, Steven Vanderputten, Peter Van der Veer, Huub Van de Sandt, Louis Van Tongeren, Luke A. Veronis, Noel Villalba, Ramón Vinke, Tim Vivian, David Voas, Elena Volkova, Katharina von Kellenbach, Elina Vuola, Timothy Wadkins, Elaine M. Wainwright, Randi Jones Walker, Dewey D. Wallace, Jerry Walls, Michael J. Walsh, Philip Walters, Janet Walton, Jonathan L. Walton, Wang Xiaochao, Patricia A. Ward, David Harrington Watt, Herold D. Weiss, Laurence L. Welborn, Sharon D. Welch, Timothy Wengert, Traci C. West, Merold Westphal, David Wetherell, Barbara Wheeler, Carolinne White, Jean-Paul Wiest, Frans Wijsen, Terry L. Wilder, Felix Wilfred, Rebecca Wilkin, Daniel H. Williams, D. Newell Williams, Michael A. Williams, Vincent L. Wimbush, Gabriele Winkler, Anders Winroth, Lauri Emílio Wirth, James A. Wiseman, Ebba Witt-Brattström, Teofil Wojciechowski, John Wolffe, Kenman L. Wong, Wong Wai Ching, Linda Woodhead, Wendy M. Wright, Rose Wu, Keith E. Yandell, Gale A. Yee, Viktor Yelensky, Yeo Khiok-Khng, Gustav K. K. Yeung, Angela Yiu, Amos Yong, Yong Ting Jin, You Bin, Youhanna Nessim Youssef, Eliana Yunes, Robert Michael Zaller, Valarie H. Ziegler, Barbara Brown Zikmund, Joyce Ann Zimmerman, Aurora Zlotnik, Zhuo Xinping
- Edited by Daniel Patte, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
-
- Book:
- The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity
- Published online:
- 05 August 2012
- Print publication:
- 20 September 2010, pp xi-xliv
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Frontmatter
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp i-vi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
5 - New Guinea
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 113-139
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
The materials from Africa and India fit well, in somewhat different ways, into the historical contexts found in Papua New Guinea. One common feature, of course, is the encompassing influence of colonial powers, although the trajectories of colonialism differ considerably in different places, as many authors have shown (e.g., Thomas 1994). The imposition of new forms of hierarchy, the exploitative use of labor, the extraction of resources, and the creation of wide ranges of new desires without the capacity to realize them are all elements widely shared between colonial contexts, and these have fed into both the earlier patterns of insurgency dealt with by Guha and the latter-day forms of apocalypticism and witch-finding discussed by the Comaroffs. In all of these contexts the general conditions set out by Guha (1994 [1983]: 256–73; see Chapter 4) for the influence of rumor in social processes apply well: low levels of literacy and a dependence on oral transmission, the creation of solidarity through the motivated passing of information, the anonymous character of information passed by word of mouth, and the quality of ambiguity, uncertainty, and portentousness that emerges from these circumstances of its production.
The colonial contexts with which we are familiar from our Papua New Guinea fieldwork and which are replicated widely elsewhere include a number of characteristic event sequences in which rumors played a major role. These include, for instance, epidemics and rumors of epidemics, cargo cults and millennial rumors, and witchcraft suspicions and accusations.
WITCHCRAFT, SORCERY, RUMORS, AND GOSSIP
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp xv-xvi
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
References
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 205-216
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern
-
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003
-
Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors, and Gossip combines two classic topics in social anthropology in a new synthesis: the study of witchcraft and sorcery and the study of rumours and gossip. It shows how rumour and gossip are invariably important as catalysts for accusations of witchcraft and sorcery, and demonstrates the role of rumour and gossip in the genesis of social and political violence, as in the case of both peasant rebellions and witch-hunts. Examples supporting the argument are drawn from Africa, Europe, India, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. They include discussions of witchcraft trials in Essex, England in the seventeenth century, witch-hunts and vampire narratives in colonial and contemporary Africa, millenarian movements in New Guinea, the Indian Mutiny in nineteenth-century Uttar Pradesh, and rumours of construction sacrifice in Indonesia.
1 - Witchcraft and Sorcery: Modes of Analysis
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 1-28
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
In this chapter we give a brief overview of some predominant ways in which anthropologists have analyzed the phenomena of witchcraft and sorcery. We then proceed to give a preliminary idea of the kinds of discussions of materials that have emerged from these orientations in ethnographic terms. Some of these materials we also discuss below in more detail. In particular we juxtapose here case histories from Africa and from Europe, to which we devote separate chapters subsequently. Our overall aim in looking at the materials here and throughout the book is to place in the foreground the virtues of an analytical approach that is processual and links microprocesses to larger historical themes. Our particular contribution to analysis is to highlight the intrinsically important roles played by gossip and rumor in the genesis of conflict.
Definitions and Perspectives
Anthropologists and social historians have approached the topics of witchcraft and sorcery in different ways. Before we discuss these, we need to take note of the definitional issues at stake. Do we conflate witchcraft and sorcery as forms of “mystical power,” or do we attempt to make a clear distinction between them? In principle, as we note below, a distinction can be made between witchcraft as the expression of a malign power in a person's body and sorcery as the use of a magical craft or knowledge to harm or benefit others. Especially, what is labeled witchcraft is often seen as a consuming force. The witch eats the life power of the victim.
6 - European and American Witchcraft
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 140-167
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Much has been written on the topic of European and American witchcraft. A quick subject search on the Internet produces a result of thousands of books, articles, and web pages devoted to this specific topic. In this chapter we use some examples that we have selected from the literature that are illustrative of the themes running throughout this book.
Mary Douglas, in an early edited collection (Witchcraft: Confessions and Accusations, 1970), stressed the importance of the “accusation phase” in studying witchcraft. This phase is equivalent to the phase of rumor and gossip. Here we take cases from the European and American canon of materials and indicate how a prehistory of gossip and rumor invariably precedes an overt witch-hunt or witch trial and witch killings. These materials demonstrate how a sense of social hysteria can be induced, leading to persecution and violence against targeted groups. Our discussion of them in this chapter follows from materials already given in Chapter 1. First we give some general background.
The longer term background to ideas that became branded as witchcraft in Europe is contested. Margaret Murray (1970 [1931]) argued that witchcraft and its covens or sabbats represented an aspect of an old European pagan religious complex centering on fertility. Its prosecution by clerical authorities therefore represented the campaigns of the Christian church against the remnants of paganism.
Index
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 217-228
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
2 - Rumor and Gossip: An Overview
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 29-58
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
In the preceding chapter we have pointed out the crucial significance of rumor and gossip in community contexts that lead to accusations of witchcraft. It is a part of our overall argument that even when particular notions of witchcraft or sorcery are not involved, rumor and gossip themselves may act as a kind of witchcraft, projecting guilt on others in ways that may cause them harm: for example, to lose their jobs, to be physically attacked, or to be socially shamed. Because rumor and gossip work covertly, outside formal mechanisms for social control, they cannot easily be checked on or verified by explicit means. They can nevertheless produce results in themselves regardless of verification, as all political “spin” artists and propagandists know. Asked why a false rumor of wrongdoing by an opponent should be disseminated, the propagandist may advise his client that this will force the opponent publicly to deny the rumor, which may only increase people's suspicions that it is in some way accurate. Legal rules of libel and slander are developed to control the escalation of such attacks, just as rules are put in place to punish those found guilty of threatening hoaxes. Journalists may be threatened with lawsuits for defamation following their repetition of stories against public personalities, such as Dominick Dunne's story about the politician Gary Condit (see the New York Times, January 28, 2003, p. B1).
8 - Conclusions: Conflict and Cohesion
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 194-204
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
As we explained in the Introduction to this book, our intention has been to bring together the discussion of rumors and gossip with materials on witchcraft and sorcery. At the most straightforward level, the aim has been to show that rumors and gossip play an important part in the overall processes that lead to witchcraft accusations. Starting from events that precipitate dislike between individual neighbors or kin, inchoate suspicions and suggestions may develop over time into judicial actions in which the particular dispute may come to be seen as a part of a struggle for social order, conceptualized in terms of good versus evil forces. In this phase the forces of evil may be seen as engaged in a conspiracy against the good. Violent actions in defense of “the good” then come to be seen as justifiable. The judicial executions and the mob killings that eventuate are seen by their perpetrators as ways of ridding the society of evil and of achieving a new balance in the cosmos, with tinges of millenarian desires and apocalyptic ideas entering people's consciousness. Political leaders and witch-finders may benefit from this process by increasing their power and/or their wealth. Individuals who feed accusations into a charged political or judicial context also may stand to gain in one way or another, most generally by ridding themselves of guilt and anxiety regarding the state of affairs in the world and their own actions within it.
7 - Rumors and Violence
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 168-193
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Rumors and gossip are often crucially involved in the genesis of overt violence in communal settings, sometimes taking the form of suggestions that covert violence is being practiced through witchcraft, sorcery, or other forms of ritual. Alternatively, rumors may take the form of protests against what is perceived as the imposition of violence by state authorities. These protests in turn can generate active and violent resistance movements. Rumors of atrocities often form a part of this overall process. Here we take the case of rumors of construction sacrifices in Indonesia to illustrate this point, setting these rumors into the overall regional literature on head-hunting (Stewart and Strathern 1998c). Violence against outsiders is easily generated by rumors also and these therefore invariably play a part in intergroup conflicts along ethnic and/or religious lines.
As we have seen in the materials presented from Africa (Chapter 3) and Papua New Guinea (Chapter 5), colonial and postcolonial conditions are important factors in establishing altered representations of relationships among people and among people and their environments. One example of this is the changed perceptions of headhunting in Eastern Indonesia where rumors spread that government officers were seeking to obtain human heads as forms of sacrifice. These rumors diffused widely and were in part stimulated by the increased state impact at the local level, which shifted preexisting power relations. In Borneo and Flores these rumors grew out of ideas surrounding what has been called “construction sacrifice.
Contents
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp vii-viii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
3 - Africa
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 59-95
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
We have already seen in Chapter 1 how in terms of local-level cases of witchcraft accusations we can find similarities between colonial Africa and historical Europe of the seventeenth century. And in Chapter 2 we mentioned how William Arens had uncovered the theme of African suspicions that Europeans were using their colonial subordinates to obtain the blood of Africans, a notion akin to that of cannibalism. Arens has extensively documented the fantasies of cannibalism imputed to “others” in many historical contexts, including those marked by colonialism. He concludes by comparing what he calls the “man-eating myth” to the fantasy of the witches' sabbath that led, through the imaginings of intellectuals, to witch-hunts in Europe (Arens 1979: 178). (The parallel does not, of course, disprove the existence of cannibalism.)
African ideas about witchcraft mutated from their local-level contexts into ones much more influenced by colonial, and later postcolonial, relations at large, just as, in continental Europe, the idea of linking witchcraft with the Devil was promoted by the authorities of church and state. Presumably, these mutations, representing the impingement of state relations on local levels of society, were already to some degree at work from earlier times, and local-level processes have also continued, intertwined with state relations, as Geschiere's (1997) work particularly shows for Africa. State-based social change was already affecting the cases studied in the 1940s and 1950s by anthropologists such as Max Marwick and Victor Turner.
4 - India
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp 96-112
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
From Crime to Insurgency
A switch from Africa to India brings us into a different world of colonialism, the British Raj in the nineteenth century, a world dominated by relations between landlords and peasants and marked by fears of peasant insurgents. In this regard it is a colonial world that bears direct comparison with Britain's presence in Ireland during the same period, marked by the same sorts of problems of excessive rent and evictions, followed by uprisings. Guha, in his classic study of peasant movements in India (1994 [1983]), points out that British colonial historiography at this time was much concerned with the phenomenon of insurgency and attempted to study it and subsume it under a kind of “science of colonialism.” Guha is at pains to point out some of the deficiencies of that “science,” noting that it tended to underestimate the forms of political and historical consciousness that these movements exhibited (cf. Bayly 1996: 97–141 and 315).
Common sufferings such as the increase in peasant indebtedness to landlords produced a common set of attitudes among the peasants and led them to seek ways to alleviate their situation. In addition, new landlords bought up impoverished estates at auctions and spread their influence as moneylenders to their own tenants, relying on the support of the colonial administration to enforce their coercive practices. Insurgency was the only possible remedy for any grievance, since the power of the state supported the landlords so directly, Guha argues (1994 [1983]: 8).
Foreword
- Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip
- Published online:
- 20 November 2009
- Print publication:
- 24 November 2003, pp ix-xiv
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
In this book we explore two intertwined themes: the study of witchcraft and sorcery and the analysis of rumor and gossip. While there is a considerable amount written on both themes, generally they have not been brought together systematically. It is illuminating to do so for several reasons. One is that gossip and rumors play an important part in the processes leading to accusations of “wrongdoing,” which include witchcraft and sorcery accusations. Also, when witchcraft and sorcery ideas are not overtly at work, rumor and gossip may work as a covert form of witchcraft against persons. This leads to conflict, violence, and scapegoating in the same way as witchcraft accusations do. The two themes of our book are intrinsically, not casually, linked together. Both belong to the broader study of processes of conflict creation and resolution. In particular, they focus on the sources of tension in social relationships and the use of cultural themes and historical ideas in transforming these relationships. Witchcraft, sorcery, rumors, and gossip, which have been separate forms of stock in trade for anthropological descriptions, are in fact important general topics of social and historical analysis at large.
The sort of model of social action that we employ in our discussion of the topics is processual. We see witchcraft ideas not only as a set of cultural symbols expressing a mode of thought about the world, but also as deeply implicated in sequences of action.
11 - Melpa and Nuer ideas of life and death: the rebirth of a comparison
-
- By Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh, North Queensland, Pamela J. Stewart, University of Pittsburgh, Australia
- Edited by Michael Lambek, University of Toronto, Andrew Strathern, University of Pittsburgh
-
- Book:
- Bodies and Persons
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 28 March 1998, pp 232-251
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
In this chapter we assist in resuscitating a comparison lost to anthropology for some time, the axis of comparison between Africa and Melanesia. We move from a narrative exposition of our theme of compensation and exchange among the Melpa of Papua New Guinea to a more general rendering of its underlying logical components, then we detail the colonial impact on compensation payments in the Melpa case, and finally we specifically compare Melpa materials with those on the Nuer people of the Sudan, described long ago by Evans-Pritchard (1940, 1951, 1956), and more recently by Sharon Hutchinson (1996).
Our Melanesia/Africa comparison has a double historical dimension. The first relates to the 1960s when Evans-Pritchard's model of Nuer social structure was initially taken as the blueprint for studies of “lineage systems” in the New Guinea Highlands and then in short terms rejected after the work of Barnes (1962). The second dimension belongs to the 1990s, when Hutchinson's study of the Nuer enables us to establish cultural correspondences and differences between the Melpa and the Nuer across a range of variables through its engagement with the topic of this volume, bodies and persons, or more accurately the embodiment of sociality.
Equivalence and substitution
What is a life worth? In the course of their history the peoples of the New Guinea Highlands elaborated a series of answers to this question. In the simplest of answers, a life is worth another life, in the sense that the killing of a person demanded a retaliatory killing.