(Download) "On Making Fathers in Lesu: The Historical Anthropology of a New Ireland Society." by Oceania # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: On Making Fathers in Lesu: The Historical Anthropology of a New Ireland Society.
- Author : Oceania
- Release Date : January 01, 2007
- Genre: Social Science,Books,Nonfiction,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 215 KB
Description
INTRODUCTION This article presents an examination of some ethnographic data concerning the initiation of boys in a Melanesian society as it existed about seventy-five years ago. (1) It will be suggested that these initiation rituals not only transformed the initiands but, just as significantly, also referred to their fathers and to notions of social continuity. Initiation has been a much discussed topic in anthropology since the early days of the discipline in the wake of the path-breaking work by Arnold van Gennep (1909). (2) The aim of the present article is not to contribute to the general discussion of the sociology and psychology of the transition of young individuals into adult life. Rather, it highlights processes of transitory image-making, following the advice of Jean La Fontaine (1985:104) in suggesting that initiation rituals cannot be understood simply as a means of changing the status of individuals and that they are just as significant for those who have already been initiated as for the novices. Regionally, it is hoped that the study will help advance our knowledge of the formative processes of societies in the Bismarck Archipelago.