Ancestral Lines: The Maisin of Papua New Guinea and the Fate of the Rainforest, Second Edition

by John Barker

Overview

This compelling ethnography offers a nuanced case study of the ways in which the Maisin of Papua New Guinea navigate pressing economic and environmental issues. Beautifully written and accessible to most readers, Ancestral Lines is designed with introductory cultural anthropology courses in mind. Barker has organized the book into chapters that mirror many of the major topics covered in introductory cultural anthropology, such as kinship, economic pursuit, social arrangements, gender relations, religion, politics, and the environment. The second edition has been revised throughout, with a new timeline of events and a final chapter that brings readers up to date on important events since 2002, including a devastating cyclone and a major court victory against the forestry industry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442635920
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Series:	Teaching Culture: UTP Ethnographies for the Classroom
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

John Barker is a professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia. He has conducted anthropological fieldwork in Papua New Guinea and amongst the Nuxalk and Nisga'a First Nations of Canada. He has published extensively on Christianity amongst the indigenous peoples of Oceania and British Columbia, the history of anthropology, and the impact of environmental activists in Papua New Guinea.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface

1. Fieldwork among the Maisin
2. Making a Living
3. The Social Design
4. The Spiritual Realm
5. Community
6. Culture Change: Tapa and the Rainforest
7. Ancestral Lines

References
Index

What People are Saying About This

Joel Robbins

Barker's book is beautifully organized, clearly written, and each chapter fits snugly within the confines of a basic topic included on all introductory syllabi. Moreover, unlike many ethnographies written specifically for undergraduates, this is a text that will neither talk down to nor bore students. Barker's finely observed discussions of such topics as reciprocity, kinship, and sorcery not only cover the major lines of argument surrounding them, but also add new ideas.

Dan Jorgensen

Ancestral Lines seems to get better each time I use it: it is that rare book that engages first-year students while providing the insight and intellectual depth upper-level courses require.

Editorial Reviews

Barker's clear, engaging, and often self-reflexive writing style provides students with a readable and interesting ethnography.—Pacific Affairs
"Ancestral Lines is a vivid portrait of how the Maisin draw upon their past to shape the modern present which,
like tapa designs, they continue to recreate anew. It is a rich, ambiguous depiction of rural PNG which should appeal to multiple audiences. Because of the way it is written, theoretical simplicity, and first-person narratives of fieldwork experience, the book is eminently suitable for entry-level undergraduates encountering cultural anthropology for the first time. It would also be useful in courses on material culture in society and, of course, on sociocultural change. In addition, Ancestral Lines is a welcome entry into the emerging literature on rural conservation in the Pacific."—David Lipset, Anthropos

Barker's book is beautifully organized, clearly written, and each chapter fits snugly within the confines of a basic topic included on all introductory syllabi. Moreover, unlike many ethnographies written specifically for undergraduates, this is a text that will neither talk down to nor bore students. Barker's finely observed discussions of such topics as reciprocity, kinship, and sorcery not only cover the major lines of argument surrounding them, but also add new ideas.—Joel Robbins, Oxford University
Ancestral Lines seems to get better each time I use it: it is that rare book that engages first-year students while providing the insight and intellectual depth upper-level courses require.—Dan Jorgensen, Western University

From the Publisher

Barker's clear, engaging, and often self-reflexive writing style provides students with a readable and interesting ethnography.

Pacific Affairs

"Ancestral Lines is a vivid portrait of how the Maisin draw upon their past to shape the modern present which,
like tapa designs, they continue to recreate anew. It is a rich, ambiguous depiction of rural PNG which should appeal
to multiple audiences. Because of the way it is written, theoretical simplicity, and first-person narratives of
fieldwork experience, the book is eminently suitable for entry-level undergraduates encountering cultural anthropology
for the first time. It would also be useful in courses on material culture in society and, of course, on sociocultural
change. In addition, Ancestral Lines is a welcome entry into the emerging literature on rural conservation in
the Pacific."

David Lipset