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Children of the Blood

Society, Reproduction and Cosmology in New Guinea

Bernard Juillerat author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:1st Feb '97

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Children of the Blood cover

This fascinating book, translated from the French, explores the Yafar society, a forest people living by shifting cultivation, hunting and gathering. Based on fifteen years of research, it offers a detailed examination of all aspects of a society whose material and nutritional relations with their rainforest environment are mediated by a sociocultural system based on a carefully negotiated relationship with natural forces, and harmony between the sexes. The author shows how these basic ideas can be found in the ritualized and institutional aspects of the Yafar's social life, as well as their mythology. Rich in detail and insight, this book fully documents the Yafar's complex ritual involving a symbolic exchange with the spirit world, a secret cult, and curing rites presided over by hereditary religious officials. The author's analysis of Yafar ideologies reveals that sexual reproduction is the key to their society and the model for continuity and regeneration prescribed by nature.

'A fine demonstration of what anthropology is and what it is meant to achieve ... Juillerat has made a monumental contribution to anthropology not only in regard to the excellence of his analysis as such but more so, because his work completes and refines previous works undertaken by others. It is hoped that Juillerat's honest commitment to anthropology will inspire others to dig deeper into their subject, as he proposes, and to shed their theoretical armour.'Journal of Polynesian Society'A sustained level of precision, elegance, and powerful empirical detail is maintained throughout.'American Anthropologist'a pioneering effort to describe and analyse the cultural richness of the peoples in the West Sepik area. It is also beautifully written, rich in ethnographic detail and well produced, with many plates and figures. The decision by the editors of Berg's Explorations in Anthropology series to include this book in their list of outstanding works is fully appropriate.'B

ISBN: 9781859731611

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 1010g

632 pages