Mangrove Man: Dialogics of Culture in the Sepik Estuary

by David Lipset

Overview

The Murik of Papua New Guinea conceptualize women as the source of nurture, generosity and love. Men have political power, but their claim to sustain and reproduce society requires them to appropriate the nurturant qualities of women. So they must, in some sense, model certain aspects of themselves after women. A "maternal schema" or "poetics" of the female body, which underlines Murik sociocultural patterns, expresses itself in a range of societal domains. These issues tie in with some of the major contemporary debates in the social sciences, including the relationship between ideas of male and female power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521564342
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/13/1997
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology , #106
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.83(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; Part I. Dialogics of the Maternal Schema and the Uterine Body: 2. A predicament in space; 3. The maternal schema and the uterine body; 4. The heraldic body; 5. Who succeeded Ginau?; Part II. Dialogics of the Maternal Schema and the Cosmic Body of Man: 6. A body more carnal; 7. The sexuality and aggression of the cosmic body; Part III. Dialogics of the Maternal Schema in Social Control: 8. Conflict and reproduction of society; 9. Social control and law.

Editorial Reviews

"Lipset's study is a first-rate, well-written ethnography of the murik, a small community settled on the Sepik River estuary in Papua New Guinea." Choice

"David Lipset has given us a rich ethnographic account of the Murik people...This book is a well through, informative ethnography that should inspire students and stimulate further anthropological debate among scholars, particularly because of the orginality of its approach and basic concept." Pacific Studies

From the Publisher