Description
Book SynopsisA study that upsets the popular assumption that human relations in small-scale societies are based on shared experience. It presents an account of the lives of the Korowai of West Papua, Indonesia, and shows that in this society, people organize their connections to each another around otherness.
Trade Review"This well-researched, carefully written ethnography ... contributes to anthropological studies of kinship, social organization, and sociality more generally." Choice "This is an ethnography not to be missed: beautifully written, dense with detail, theoretically innovative. I would highly recommend it to all anthropologists." -- Naomi M. Mcpherson Pacific Affairs "Powerful" Comparative Studies In Society And History / Cssh "A generously provocative contribution to Melanesian studies and anthropology generally... Insightful thinking and great originality." -- Michael Wood Australian Journal Of Anthropology "This book should be read by anyone interested in anthropology." -- Tuomas Tammisto Suomen Antropologi: J Finnish Anthro Soc "The volume shines as an example of that long-abused and misused genre: the ethnography... Simply must be read." -- Alex Golub Mitteilungen Des Deutschen "A well-written and evocative ethnography of the treehouse-dwelling Karowai people of Papua New Guinea." -- Don Seeman Common Knowledge
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Note on Language xv Introduction: Otherness as a Relation 1 1. A Dispersed Society: Place Ownership and the Crossing of Spatial Margins 25 2. Pairing and Avoidance: An Otherness-Focused Approach to Social Ties 73 3. Strange Kin: Maternal Uncles and the Spectrum of Relatives 105 4. Children and the Contingency of Attachment 140 5. Marriage as Disruption and Creation of Belonging 173 6. Dialectics of Contact and Separation in Mourning 208 Conclusion 255 Notes 277 References 291 Index 303
