Melanesians and Missionaries: An Ethnohistorical Study of Social and Religious Change in the Southwest Pacific

by Whiteman, Darrell L.

• ISBN13: 9781579109615
• ISBN10: 1579109616
• Format: Textbook Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers

Author Biography

Darrell L. Whiteman is Professor Cultural Anthropology in the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism, Asbury Theological Seminary, and Editor of the journal Missiology. He received his B.A. from Seattle Pacific University and his Ph.D. in anthropology from Southern Illinois University. He has research and mission experience in Central Africa, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. His research and writing focus on missionaries as agents of culture change, Third World development, and indigenous Christianity

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. xii
Tables	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xiv
Preface	p. xv
Foreword	p. xviii
Introduction
Missionaries and Culture Change	p. 1
The Study of Culture Change	p. 3
Some Models of Culture Change	p. 5
Methodology	p. 13
Hypotheses and Questions	p. 17
Summary	p. 20
Notes	p. 21
The Pre-Contact Period--Prior to 1850
Pre-Contact Melanesian Society and Culture	p. 29
Methodological Considerations	p. 29
The Iberian Intrusion	p. 31
Melanesian Prehistory	p. 43
The Linguistic Situation in Melanesia	p. 47
Traditional Melanesian Habitat and Cultural Adaptation	p. 51
Social Organization in Traditional Melanesian Society	p. 56
Traditional Melanesian Religion and Magic	p. 64
Summary	p. 79
Notes	p. 81
Missionary Contact and Melanesian Response	p. 99
G. A. Selwyn: Founder of the Melanesian Mission	p. 99
Anthropological Problems and Missiological Principles	p. 101
The Socio-Cultural Context of Missionary-Islander Interaction	p. 106
Missionary Attitudes Toward and Perceptions of the Melanesians	p. 111
Melanesian Perception of Missionaries	p. 113
Bishop John Coleridge Patteson's Philosophy of Culture Contact	p. 116
Patteson's Methods of Advocating Religious Change	p. 120
Socio-Religious Change in Mota and the Banks' Islands	p. 128
An Indigenous Response to Christianity on Nggela in the Solomon Islands	p. 137
Summary	p. 144
Notes	p. 151
The Period of Penetration--1900-1942
Melanesian Movements Toward Christianity	p. 171
Changes in the Contact Community	p. 171
Mission Reorganization and Adaptation of Institutions	p. 176
Phenomenology of Religious Change	p. 183
The Melanesian Brotherhood	p. 194
Missionary-Melanesian Interpersonal Relations	p. 198
Melanesian Responses to Missionary Advocacy of Change	p. 219
Summary	p. 227
Notes	p. 229
The Period of Absorption--1942-1975
Toward Independence and Indigenization	p. 247
World War II and Its Impact on Melanesian Acculturation	p. 247
Marching Rule	p. 250
Melanesian Acculturation and Revitalization	p. 273
The Church Association	p. 280
Missionary Responses to Melanesian Aspirations for Indigenization	p. 294
Summary	p. 301
Notes	p. 302
The Period of Autonomy--1975-Present
The Problem of Indigenous Christianity	p. 323
Organizational Structure of the Church of Melanesia	p. 325
Christianity in the Village	p. 330
Christian Conversion as Innovation	p. 358
The Integration of Christianity into Melanesian Society and Culture	p. 372
Summary	p. 392
Notes	p. 393
Conclusion
Missionaries as Agents of Culture Change	p. 411
Indigenization	p. 411
Christianity and Christendom	p. 418
Missionaries and Culture Change	p. 419
The Melanesian Mission and Indigenization	p. 425
Missionaries as Cultural Destroyers or Cultural Brokers	p. 429
Principles of Cross-cultural Communication for Agents of Change	p. 433
Summary and Conclusions of this Study	p. 440
Notes	p. 443
Appendices
Memorandum of Acculturation	p. 452
Barnett's Model of Innovation	p. 457
Statistics of the Melanesian Mission	p. 462
Patteson's Memorandum on the Labor Trade	p. 464
Rules of the Brotherhood	p. 469
Rules of the Church Association	p. 471
Glossary of Terms	p. 477
Bibliography	p. 479
Index	p. 541
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