Naven or the Other Self: A Relational Approach to Ritual Action (Studies in the History of Religions)

Houseman, Michael

ISBN 10: 9004112200 / ISBN 13: 9789004112209

Published by Brill Academic Pub, 1998

About this Item

There is light pencil marks throughout the first half of the book, and faint rubbing. Otherwise, it is sharp, clean, and tightly-bound. The dust jakcet has light edge wear, and minor rubbing. Otherwise, it is sharp, clean, and now adorned with mylar. The book would be in Very Good condition if not for the pencil marks.

Seller Inventory # 1002292

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Naven or the Other Self: A Relational Approach to Ritual Action (Studies in the History of Religions)
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004112200
• ISBN 13: 9789004112209
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Archaeology

About this title

Synopsis

In this work, the author propose a novel theory of ritual action founded upon an in-depth study of the wide variety of behaviors that the Iatmul of Papua New Guinea identify as naven: a transvestism rite studied by Gregory Bateson in the 1930s and documented by other anthropologists since. Ritual performance is shown to involve the construction of complex relational networks entailing the condensation of contradictory modes of relationship in accordance with over-arching interactive forms.
In this volume, inquiry into the history of anthropology, detailed ethnographic analysis and theoretical discussion are combined. The first part examines Bateson's and others' understandings of naven; the second offers a reinterpretation of this ritual in the light of new ethnographic data; and the third proposes a general approach to the analysis of ritual and suggests how this perspective may be applied elsewhere.

About the Author

Michael Houseman is Director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris) and Head of the Systems of African Thought Centre of the EPHE and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He has published extensively on kinship and on ritual.
Carlo Severi is a Senior Fellow of the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique and a member of the Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale, Collège de France. He has published papers in the field of symbolic anthropology and is the author of a book on Cuna shamanism (La memoria rituale, 1993).