This book is an explicitly comparative, anthropological analysis of the societies of the eastern and western highlands of Papua New Guinea. Particular societies have been documented by anthropologists since the 1950s yet until this book's publication in 1987, there had been relatively few attempts at rigourouscomparison of the findings. This book argues that the highlands cannot be treated as a homogeneous region, socially, culturally, historically or environmentally. Rather, societies of the eastern highlands have followed markedly different paths of development in the past to those of the western highlands, and it is upon this divergence that a comparative treatment of the twentieth century should be mounted. INDICE: List of plates; List of maps and tables; Preface; 1. Prologue: anthropology in the Papua New Guinea highlands; 2. Papua New Guinea highlands prehistory: a social anthropologist's view; 3. Configurations of intensity; 4. Warfare; 5. Leadership and politics; 6. Social structure; 7. Male-female relations; 8. Ceremonial exchange; 9. the legacy of the past; Bibliography; Index.
- ISBN: 978-0-521-13175-9
- Editorial: Cambridge University
- Encuadernacion: Rústica
- Páginas: 328
- Fecha Publicación: 22/04/2010
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés