Landscapes of Relations and Belonging

Astrid Anderson has a doctoral degree in social anthropology from the University of Oslo and is presently a senior academic librarian at the University of Oslo Library.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsNote on OrthographyIntroductionWogeo and Ian HogbinWogeo IslandThe People of DabThe ChaptersPART I: WOGEO ISLAND - PLACE AND PEOPLE PreludeChapter 1: Life in WogeoDab VillageMain Kinship CategoriesDaily RhythmsFood, Sharing and ExchangeMission, Colonial Powers and ChangeLanguageChapter 2: The Legacy of Ian Hogbin and the Wogeo Culture HeroesThe Origins of KastomOnka and MafofoPART II: BODIES, TABOOS AND SOCIALITYPreludeChapter 3: Differentiation and Connectedness: Blood, Flutes and GenderPolluted BloodFirst MenstruationChildbirthMale Cleansing and the Male CultGendered DifferentiationChapter 4: Desired and Undesired ConnectionsPollution and Diseases of the PlaceGerms, Smell and LanguageChapter 5: Death and DisconnectionsManvaraThe Death of UlbaiaDecomposing the Composite PersonThe Last Work for UlbaiaCutting the SkinPART III: LANDSCAPE, KNOWLEDGE AND LEADERSHIP PreludeChapter 6: Sides, Pathways and DirectionsChasing the StarsThe Island as a CanoeLandscape of Paths and PlacesVillage LandscapesChapter 7: Knowledge and LeadershipForms of LeadershipKnowledge and Leadership‘Everything goes in fours’Koakoale and MatrilineagesKoakoale and PlaceKoakoale and ExchangeChanging Expressions of KnowledgeKnowledge, Truth and the Vatican CouncilPART IV: POLITICS OF BELONGINGPreludeChapter 8: Kinship, Place and Belonging‘The dead weight of old kinship categories’The ‘problem’ of GroupsShared PlacesShared BloodHouses and MatrilineagesAdoptionChapter 9: Dab Village – its Land, Houses and PeopleThe Construction of SingeroSingero’s Traditional DesignInheritance of RightsFlexibility and Perceived Permanence in the Dab LandscapeLand Rights, Consensus and Corrugated IronConclusionExperience and RepresentationRelations in the LandscapePostludeReferencesGlossaryIndex

“Classic Melanesian ethnographies are… sometimes dismissed as irrelevant in the face of a concern with local engagement with global processes. In contrast, the reflexive potential of anthropology is demonstrated in this book, which revisits, enhances and improves on the insights of a previous good ethnographer at the same time as it offers new material from a contemporary fieldworker equipped with a different analytic toolkit.”  ·  Pacific Affairs“In this monograph, Astrid Anderson takes us through in depth ethnographic descriptions of Wogeo life worlds and how meaning is created in what Anderson sees as a dialogical relationship between embodied experience and representation...This is a well written monograph and as a reader one gets a thorough understanding of Wogeo life worlds. The book is a rich contribution to Melanesian ethnography.”  ·  Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift“…the book offers a large corpus of valuable ethnographic data, which can be further analysed and used for comparative purposes, and provides a powerful case for those interested in the politics and gender of movements and placements as an alternative to the more conventional studies of kinship, social organization, and leadership in Papua New Guinea.”  ·  Oceania“Anderson has taken us through several ‘journeys’ as we explore the world of the Wogeo…The result is a crisp yet complex formulation of her perspective as she strives to stay true to the details that Wogeo advocates shared with her. The responses of those Wogeo and other Pacific peoples who read this ethnography will be watched with interest.”  ·  Anthropological Notebooks“This is an honest piece of work, refreshing in its matter-of-fact tone of voice and thorough engagement with the regional and theoretical literatures. I would say it is a model for the enduring power of participant-observation based fieldwork and ethnographic analysis.”  ·  Anthropos