Arguments and Icons : Divergent Modes of Religiosity: Divergent Modes of ReligiosityOUP Oxford, Jun 1, 2000 - 216 pages Why do initiations in Papua New Guinea often subject novices to violence and terror? Why do some cargo cults lead to regional unity and others to regional divisions? How have features of cognitive processing in missionary Christianity contributed to new forms of identity among Melanesians? The theory of `modes of religiosity' which Whitehouse here develops answers these and a range of other questions about Melanesia with reference to a set of interconnections between styles of religious transmission, systems of memory, and patterns of political association. Although building his argument on detailed Melanesian ethnography, Whitehouse goes on to suggest that the theory of modes of religiosity may have wider applicability. Thus, in the final two chapters of this book, he explores such diverse topics as the spread of Reformed Christianity in sixteenth-century Europe, the interpretation of Upper Palaeolithic cave art, the genesis of tribal warfare, and the impact of literacy on social transmission and organization. |
Contents
Indigenous Religions of Papua New Guinea | 18 |
From Mission to Movement | 34 |
Modalities of Codification and Dissemination | 54 |
Order and Disorder in Melanesian Religion | 81 |
Cognition Emotion and Politics | 99 |
Interacting Modes of Religiosity | 125 |
Entangled Histories | 147 |
Modes of Religiosity and Political Evolution | 160 |
| 189 | |
| 199 | |
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Common terms and phrases
activities anthropologists argued argument associated Baktaman initiation Barth Brunton's cargo cults central ceremonial Chapter church coherent cohesion communitas complex conceptual context contrast cosmology crucial cultural described dissemination doctrinal and imagistic doctrinal mode elaborate embahi emotional encoded entailed episodic memories established evoked exegesis exegetical flashbulb memory forms Goody guria highly human iconic ideas ideology imagery images imagistic mode imagistic practices initiation rites innovation instance intellectual intense jipari Juillerat Koriam large-scale leaders linked literacy logical Melanesian Melanesian religions mission missionary Christianity mode of religiosity models Moreover multivocal Nevertheless Noise novices orators Orokaiva orthodoxy Paliau Movement Papua New Guinea particular patterns pigs political Pomio Kivung Reformation regions religious experience religious traditions repetitive revelations revelatory ritual ritual performances routinized sacred schemas Schwartz Second Cult semantic memory social splinter groups spread symbolism Taro Cult tend theory tion transmission transmitted universalistic Upper Palaeolithic verbal village Wanek Whitehouse 1995 Williams Yafar yangis