In the Midst of Life
Affect and Ideation in the World of the Tolai
1st Edition
Published on 12. February 1992
328 pages
978-0-520-91164-2 (ISBN)
Description
The Tolai are among the most distinctive of Papua New Guinea's indigenous peoples. For all their success in the pursuit of modernity, the Tolai remain traditional in their attitudes toward death, the cultural elaboration of which colors almost every aspect of their existence.
In his new book, A. L. Epstein develops an emotional profile of the Tolai, contending that societies are distinguished as much by the shape of their emotional life as they are by their social arrangements and cultural styles. Epstein describes a wide range of mourning ceremonies and other more and less public occasions. By investigating not only the words that stand for emotions but also the way affect enters into and informs people's conduct, he charts a new course for ethnography that seeks to integrate the study of the emotions into anthropological analysis.
In his new book, A. L. Epstein develops an emotional profile of the Tolai, contending that societies are distinguished as much by the shape of their emotional life as they are by their social arrangements and cultural styles. Epstein describes a wide range of mourning ceremonies and other more and less public occasions. By investigating not only the words that stand for emotions but also the way affect enters into and informs people's conduct, he charts a new course for ethnography that seeks to integrate the study of the emotions into anthropological analysis.
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Book
02/1992
1st Edition
University of California Press
€65.61
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Person
A. L. Epstein is Professor Emeritus of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex.
Content
- Cover
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Exploring Affect: Some Preliminary Issues
- 2 The Tolai: Habitat, History, Society
- 3 The Language of the Emotions
- 4 Work, Ambition, and Envy
- 5 Of Kin, Love, and Anger
- 6 Tambu, Grief, and the Meaning of Death
- 7 Affect and the Self
- 8 Epilogue: The Anthropologist as Onion-Peeler
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
