Like Fire

Like Fire chronicles an indigenous movement for radical change in Papua New Guinea from 1946 to the present. The movement's founder, Paliau Maloat, promoted a program for step-by-step social change in which many of his followers also found hope for a miraculous millenarian transformation. Drawing on...

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التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
المؤلفون الرئيسيون: French Smith, Michael, Schwartz, Theodore
التنسيق: Online
اللغة:الإنجليزية
منشور في: ANU Press 2021
الموضوعات:
الوصول للمادة أونلاين:ONIX_20210714_9781760464257_2
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author French Smith, Michael
Schwartz, Theodore
author_browse French Smith, Michael
Schwartz, Theodore
author_facet French Smith, Michael
Schwartz, Theodore
author_sort French Smith, Michael
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description Like Fire chronicles an indigenous movement for radical change in Papua New Guinea from 1946 to the present. The movement's founder, Paliau Maloat, promoted a program for step-by-step social change in which many of his followers also found hope for a miraculous millenarian transformation. Drawing on data collected over several decades, Theodore Schwartz and Michael French Smith describe the movement’s history, Paliau’s transformation from secular reformer and politician to Melanesian Jesus, and the development of the current incarnation of the movement as Wind Nation, a fully millenarian endeavour. Their analysis casts doubt on common ways of understanding a characteristically Melanesian form of millenarianism, the cargo cult, and questions widely accepted ways of interpreting millenarianism in general. They show that to understand the human proclivity for millenarianism we must scrutinise more closely two near-universal human tendencies: difficulty accepting the role of chance or impersonal forces in shaping events (that is, the tendency to personify causation), and a tendency to imagine that one or one’s group is the focus of the malign or benign attention of purposeful entities, from the local to the cosmic. Schwartz and Smith discuss the prevalence of millenarianism and warn against romanticising it, because the millenarian mind can subvert rationality and nourish rage and fear even as it seeks transcendence.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-713092025-08-13T14:12:30Z Like Fire French Smith, Michael Schwartz, Theodore Papua New Guinea Millenarianism Cargo Cults religion Margaret Mead thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHM Australasian and Pacific history thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999 thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPW Political activism / Political engagement thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHM Australasian and Pacific history thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999 thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPW Political activism / Political engagement Like Fire chronicles an indigenous movement for radical change in Papua New Guinea from 1946 to the present. The movement's founder, Paliau Maloat, promoted a program for step-by-step social change in which many of his followers also found hope for a miraculous millenarian transformation. Drawing on data collected over several decades, Theodore Schwartz and Michael French Smith describe the movement’s history, Paliau’s transformation from secular reformer and politician to Melanesian Jesus, and the development of the current incarnation of the movement as Wind Nation, a fully millenarian endeavour. Their analysis casts doubt on common ways of understanding a characteristically Melanesian form of millenarianism, the cargo cult, and questions widely accepted ways of interpreting millenarianism in general. They show that to understand the human proclivity for millenarianism we must scrutinise more closely two near-universal human tendencies: difficulty accepting the role of chance or impersonal forces in shaping events (that is, the tendency to personify causation), and a tendency to imagine that one or one’s group is the focus of the malign or benign attention of purposeful entities, from the local to the cosmic. Schwartz and Smith discuss the prevalence of millenarianism and warn against romanticising it, because the millenarian mind can subvert rationality and nourish rage and fear even as it seeks transcendence. 2021-07-14T09:57:58Z 2021 book ONIX_20210714_9781760464257_2 OCN: 1247151119 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/50011 9781760464257 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/71309 eng Monographs in Anthropology open access image/png image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/50011/1/9781760464257.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/50011/1/9781760464257.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/50011/1/9781760464257.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/50011/1/9781760464257.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/50011/1/9781760464257.pdf ANU Press ANU Press 10.22459/LF.2021 10.22459/LF.2021 975ba519-3ce2-4517-95bf-b847729fbcf1 9781760464257 ANU Press 560 Canberra open access
spellingShingle Papua New Guinea
Millenarianism
Cargo Cults
religion
Margaret Mead
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHM Australasian and Pacific history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology
thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPW Political activism / Political engagement
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHM Australasian and Pacific history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology
thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPW Political activism / Political engagement
French Smith, Michael
Schwartz, Theodore
Like Fire
title Like Fire
title_full Like Fire
title_fullStr Like Fire
title_full_unstemmed Like Fire
title_short Like Fire
title_sort like fire
topic Papua New Guinea
Millenarianism
Cargo Cults
religion
Margaret Mead
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHM Australasian and Pacific history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology
thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPW Political activism / Political engagement
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHM Australasian and Pacific history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology
thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPW Political activism / Political engagement
topic_facet Papua New Guinea
Millenarianism
Cargo Cults
religion
Margaret Mead
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHM Australasian and Pacific history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology
thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPW Political activism / Political engagement
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHM Australasian and Pacific history
thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology
thema EDItEUR::3 Time period qualifiers::3M c 1500 onwards to present day::3MP 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHM Anthropology::JHMC Social and cultural anthropology
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JP Politics and government::JPW Political activism / Political engagement
url ONIX_20210714_9781760464257_2
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