Inside the Cult: Religious Innovation and Transmission in Papua New Guinea (Oxford Studies in Social & Cultural Anthropology)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Harvey Whitehouse Our price £23.00 New from £23.00 Used from £68.77 Pages: 256 (Paperback) ISBN: 0198280513 Pub: Clarendon Press Pub date: 1995-07-06 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 214053

Reader Reviews:

A sensitive exploration of religious practice (3/3 people found this helpful)

This work explores the relationship between religious practice and religious 'experience' through the examination of the authors own research and experiences in Melanesia and(amongst other things)cognitive psychology.

Dr Whitehouse's timely arrival in Papua New Guinea, to research a religious group (so-called 'Cargo Cult') known as the Pomio Kivung enabled him to gain access to otherwise secret rituals of a radical splinter-group of the 'church' due to he and his wife being taken for an emissary from the 'ancestor spirits'.

Despite the apparent sensationalism of the blurb on the cover this work sensitively explores the political, social and experiential effects of an ecstatic splinter movement of an established church.

The reactions of insiders and outsiders to the practices and beliefs of the group, as well as the often serious social and political effects resulting from them provide a stimulating and important background for any research into religion and its social contexts.

Dr Whitehouse also explores how religious practices develop and fluctuate through stages of ecstatic practice and codification. By utilising research from other disciplines he suggests exciting approaches to the study of religious experiences and,I personally feel, audience reaction.

While this book is published as an anthropological work I feel it is also of vital importance to those interested in psychology, religion and performance analysis.

Similar Products

Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology

Categories

Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories: