Publication Information
Author:
Aijmer, Göran
Title:
Houses in Lesu: the historical anthropology of a New Ireland
society
Published in:
Journal of anthropological research -- Vol. 63, no. 1
Published By:
Journal of anthropological research -- Vol. 63, no. 1
Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico, 2007. 51-72 p.:
ill.
By line:
Göran Aijmer
HRAF Publication Information: New Haven, Conn.:
HRAF, 2012. Computer File
Culture:
Lesu (OM24)
Subjects:
Cultural identity and pride (186);
Household (592);
Family relationships (593);
Topography and geology (133);
Community structure (621);
Dwellings (342);
Architecture (341);
Public structures (344);
Building interiors and arrangement (353);
Food preparation (252);
Outbuildings (343);
Burial practices and funerals (764);
Cult of the dead (769);
Religious and educational structures (346);
Gender status (562);
Mythology (773);
Postnatal care (846);
Cosmology (772);
Sacred objects and places (778);
Sexual intercourse (833);
Eating (264);
Life and death (761);
Kin relationships (602);
Localized kin groups (618);
Regulation of marriage (582);
Abstract:
This article examines features of habitation and domestic symbolism in
Lesu houses as originally observed by Hortense Powdermaker in 1929-1930. It
reconstructs important aspects of early social life in Lesu society with a focus
on houses as mundane institutions and as expressive devices. The examination
concerns the organization of shelter into continuous groups and social
communities. Men's houses and women's houses stood out as symbolic topoi, each
evoking a main cultural modality. The respective iconic narrations of these two
possible worlds offered radically different solutions to the existential problem
of continuity.
Document Number:
7
Document ID: om24-007
Document Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Field Date:
not applicable
Evaluation:
Anthropologist-4
Analyst:
Teferi Abate Adem; 2011
Coverage Date:
1920-2007
Coverage Place:
Lesu, New
Ireland, Papua New Guinea
LCSH:
New Ireland Province (Papua New Guinea)//Ethnology--Papua New Guinea--New
Ireland//Lesu, New Ireland (Papua New Guinea)
