In anthropology, theoretical approaches attempting to come to terms with experiences of social interaction, often inspired by phenomenology, have come to the fore in opposition to the previously favored emphasis on symbolic and social structures. These essays attempt a new kind of ethnographic description of social life that treats structure and practice as aspects of the same reality. This is achieved through attention to indigenous conceptualizations of the way society itself is generated.
With Jonathan Friedman and Fredrik Barth providing overviews, this series of innovative ethnographies highlights ways of forming social relations specific to Oceania as a cultural area, exemplifying a new kind of comparative approach and making a major contribution to general social theory.
Table of Content
Introduction
Jonathan Friedman
Chapter 1. Sociality as Figure: Bendami Perceptions of Social Relationships
Chapter 2. Fighting Hierarchy: Relations of Egality and Hierarchy among the May River Iwam of Papua New Guinea
Chapter 3. Landscapes of Socialities: Paths, Places and Belonging on Wogeo Island, Papua New Guinea
Chapter 4. Disentangling the Butubutu of New Georgia: Cognatic Kinship in Thought and Action
Chapter 5. Pathway and Side: An Essay Onotoan Notions of Relatedness
Chapter 6. Making Sides: On the Production of Contexts and Difference in Tokelau
Chapter 7. ‘The Other Kind’: Representing Otherness and Living with it on Kotu Island in Tonga
Chapter 8. ‘Maori are Different, but We are Similar for Particular Reasons’: Dynamics of Belonging in Social Practice
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Sidsel Roalkvam is a Post-doctoral fellow in the Department of General Practice and Community Medicine, University of Oslo.
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