Steel to Stone A Chronicle of Colonialism in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

by Clark, Jeffrey; Ballard, Chris; Nihill, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780198233770
• ISBN10: 0198233779
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In this book the late Jeffrey Clark subjects the history of colonialism among the Wiru of Papua New Guinea to a fresh and subtle examination. Colonized and colonizers alike are the focus of an analysis that draws upon theories of culture, temporality, discursive representation, and anthropology in the postcolonial era.

Author Biography

Jeffrey Clark was formerly Research Fellow with the Politics of Tradition Project at the Australian National University, and a member of the Department of Anthropology, James Cook University, North Queensland.

Table of Contents

List of Maps	ix
List of Figures	ix
Editors' Preface	xi
Prelude	xiii
Acknowledgements	xxiii
Preface	xxvii
Introduction	1	(10)
PART I
Tangenemo and Other Stories	11	(22)
In the Beginning was the Cassowary	18	(7)
Colonialism as Ripping Yarn	25	(8)
Sons of the Female Spirit, Men of Steel	33	(40)
Western Society and the `Other'	35	(2)
First Patrols in the Highlands	37	(4)
The Europeans in Pangia	41	(8)
Steel after Gold	49	(9)
Perception and Direction	58	(3)
The 1950s-Spirits and Pacification	61	(3)
The Appropriation of the Colonial `Other'	64	(3)
Human, all too Human	67	(1)
First Contact, Again	68	(5)
PART II
`An Unsettled and Vicious People'	73	(24)
Administrative Discourses	75	(9)
A Cult of Work	84	(8)
The Failure of Development	92	(5)
Waiting for the Word, Walking in the Light	97	(22)
Invention and Abandonment	98	(3)
Government and Evangelism	101	(1)
Colonial Romance, Colonial Rationality	102	(2)
Mission Discourses in Pangia	104	(9)
Skin Christians	113	(6)
PART III
Shrinking, Colonialism, and the Wildman	119	(25)
Madness and Colonization	122	(6)
The Joy of Jumping	128	(8)
The Incredible Shrinking Men	136	(5)
Pacify and Convert	141	(3)
Renouncing the Stone	144	(26)
A Colonial `Cultural History'	145	(9)
A Brief History of Cults and Sacrifice	154	(4)
Cults, Christianity, and Colonialism	158	(4)
Fish Cooking, a New Exchange	162	(3)
Sacrifice and Selling	165	(5)
Epilogue. The Present in the Past	170	(5)
Bibliography	175	(10)
Index	185