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Classic Concepts in Anthropology
The late anthropologist Valerio Valeri (1944–98) was best known for his substantial writings on societies of Polynesia and eastern Indonesia. This volume, however, presents a lesser-known side of Valeri’s genius through a dazzlingly erudite set of comparative essays on core topics in the history of anthropological theory. Offering masterly discussions of anthropological thought about ritual, fetishism, cosmogonic myth, belief, caste, kingship, mourning, play, feasting, ceremony, and cultural relativism, Classic Concepts in Anthropology, will be an eye-opening, essential resource for students and researchers not only in anthropology but throughout the humanities.
Kingship and Sacrifice
Valeri presents an overview of Hawaiian religious culture, in which hierarchies of social beings and their actions are mirrored by the cosmological hierarchy of the gods. As the sacrifice is performed, the worshipper is incorporated into the god of his class. Thus he draws on divine power to sustain the social order of which his action is a part, and in which his own place is determined by the degree of his resemblance to his god. The key to Hawaiian society—and a central focus for Valeri—is the complex and encompassing sacrificial ritual that is the responsibility of the king, for it displays in concrete actions all the concepts of pre-Western Hawaiian society. By interpreting and understanding this ritual cycle, Valeri contends, we can interpret all of Hawaiian religious culture.
The Forest of Taboos
Contends that the ambivalence felt by all humans about sex, death and eating other animals can be explained by a set of coordinated principles that are expressed in taboos. Valeri evokes the world of the Huaulu, to show the attractions of the animal world which invades the human world in many ways.
Fragments from Forests and Libraries
Edited by Janet Hoskins, Fragments from Forests and Libraries is a compilation of important articles by Valerio Valeri, a scholar whose research ranged from the rainforests of the island of Seram to European archives and libraries. Along with nine essays previously published in English, the book contains a number of studies translated for the first time and one unpublished work. This book is part of the Ritual Studies Monograph Series, edited by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh. "Throughout, the writing is scholarly, steeped in an unusually extensive knowledge of European history and philosophy, which Valeri often brings to bear in unexpected and illuminating ways on the complexities of Huaulu life....This will be a most useful text in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in anthropology, not least because, in its independence of thought, broad range of interests, and its refusal to specialize narrowly, it sets an example we all should try to emulate." -- Simon Harrison, The Journal of The Royal Anthropological Institute, September 2003
The Flow of Life
Indonesia east of Bali is perhaps the least known of all major cultural areas of Southeast Asia. Yet the anthropology of the region has long held a prominent place in the development of structuralist theories of marital exchange and symbolic classification. Falling in a distinguished lineage running from van Wouden to Levi-Strauss to Rodney Needham, The Flow of Life presents a comprehensive set of essays by a distinguished group of international scholars, which provides both a full picture of this culturally rich area and an important extension of earlier structuralist theory. This volume is bound to become the standard source on the social anthropology of eastern Indonesia. But it is a work of more than regional significance, providing a variety of empirical resources to address the questions which lie at the bottom of much structuralist thought about mind and society: what is the nature of symbolic thought? how does consciousness intertwine with society and ecology? what is the difference between "primitive" and "modern" society?
Lonely Cold War of Pope Pius XII
The first detailed study of the international role of the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church in the shaping of post-1945 Europe and the origins of the Cold War.
Myth and Philosophy
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Hierarchy
On the basis of diverse ethnographic contexts in Oceania, Asia, and the Middle East, the author's challenge current conceptions of hierarchical formations and reassess former debates, both with regard to new theoretical issues and the new world situation of post-colonial and neocolonial agendas.
Cannibal Talk
In this radical reexamination of the notion of cannibalism, Gananath Obeyesekere offers a fascinating and convincing argument that cannibalism is mostly "cannibal talk," a discourse on the Other engaged in by both indigenous peoples and colonial intruders that results in sometimes funny and sometimes deadly cultural misunderstandings. Turning his keen intelligence to Polynesian societies in the early periods of European contact and colonization, Obeyesekere deconstructs Western eyewitness accounts, carefully examining their origins and treating them as a species of fiction writing and seamen's yarns. Cannibalism is less a social or cultural fact than a mythic representation of European writi...
Pius XII and the Second World War
The first one-volume history, based on the Vatican archives, of Pope Pius XII and his dealings with the contesting powers and with the Jews during World War II.
