Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Using a combination of comparative/historical and ethnographic approaches, the concepts of the “life-death continuum” and the cosmic “life force” are examined for the Asmat tribe of New Guinea. Primary attention is paid to data gathered in Irian Jaya (Indonesian New Guinea) in 1973–74 and 1979. The roles of magic and sorcery are examined in the context of death causation, as is the notion of societal equilibrium/disequilibrium. The symbolism of the skull is covered briefly, being tied to tribal beliefs concerning attributes of humanness. Of importance are the concepts of probabilism and determinism, introduced to aid the understanding of life-death processes in Melanesian and Western societies, respectively. In conclusion, positive adjustments associated with the free expression of grief are examined cross-culturally.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Rosenblatt

P. C.

Jackson

D. A.

Walsh

R. P.

, Coping with Anger and Aggression in Mourning, Omega, 3: 4, pp. 271–284, 1972.

Pospisil

, The Kapauku Papuans of West New Guinea, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1963.

Huber

P. B.

, Death and Society Among the Anggor of New Guinea, Omega, 3:3, pp. 233–243, 1972.

Landy

, Death: Anthropological Perspective, in Encyclopedia of Bioethics, Reich

W. T.

(ed.), Free Press, New York, 1978.

Moore

L. G.

Van Arsdale

P. W.

Glittenberg

J. E.

Aldrich

R. A.

, The Biocultural Basis of Health: Expanding Views of Medical Anthropology, C. V. Mosby, St. Louis, 1980.

Frazer

J. G.

, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, abridged edition, Macmillan, New York, 1960.

Frazer

J. G.

, The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume 1: The Belief among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea and Melanesia, Dawsons of Pall Mall, London, 1968 (originally 1911–12)

Durkheim

, Suicide, Spaulding

Simpson

(trans.), Free Press, New York, 1951 (originally 1897)

Johnson

P. L.

, When Dying is Better than Living: Female Suicide among the Gainj of Papua New Guinea, Ethnology, 20: 4, pp. 325–334, 1981.

10.

Malinowski

, Argonauts of the Western Pacific, Dutton, New York, 1922.

11.

Malinowski

, Magic, Science and Religion, and Other Essays, Redfield

(ed.), Free Press, Glencoe, 1948.

12.

Moss

, The Life After Death in Oceania and the Malay Archipelago, Oxford University Press, London, 1925.

13.

Westermark

G. D.

Welsch

R. L.

, A Bibliography of North American Anthropological Doctoral Theses on New Guinea, Mankind, 11: 1, pp. 26–32, 1978.

14.

Williams

F. E.

, Orokaiva Society, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1930.

15.

Reay

, The Kuma: Freedom and Conformity in the New Guinea Highlands, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, 1959.

16.

Konrad

Schneebaum

, Asmat: Leben mit den Ahnen, Friedhelm Brückner, Glashütten, West Germany, 1981.

17.

Lex

B. W.

, Voodoo Death: New Thoughts on an Old Explanation, in Culture, Disease, and Healing: Studies in Medical Anthropology, Landy

(ed.), Macmillan, New York, 1977.

18.

Van Arsdale

P. W.

Gallus

D. E.

, The “Lord of the Earth” Cult among the Asmat: Prestige, Power, and Politics in a Transitional Society, Irian: Bulletin of Irian Jaya Development, 3: 2, pp. 1–31, 1974.

19.

Lindenbaum

, Kuru Sorcery: Disease and Danger in the New Guinea Highlands, Mayfield, Palo Alto, 1979.

20.

Voorhoeve

C. L.

, The Flamingo Bay Dialect of the Asmat Language, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands, 1965.

21.

Zegwaard

, Population Data of the Asmatters, Office of Population Interest, Document No. 51, Government of Dutch New Guinea, n.d.

22.

Gajdusek

D. C.

, Unconventional Viruses and the Origin and Disappearance of Kuru, Science, 197, pp. 943–960, 1977.

23.

Eliade

, Mythologies of Death: An Introduction, in Religious Encounters with Death: Insights from the History and Anthropology of Religions, Reynolds

F. E.

Waugh

E. H.

(eds.), Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, Pennsylvania, 1977.

Life and Death in New Guinea

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References