Peace-Making and The Imagination ─ Papua New Guinea Perspectives

A compelling new book that presents a thoughtful and creative approach to transforming violent discordances, this work examines the intractable issues of revenge and restitution in a conflict context. It argues that in communities where violence must be paid for through compensation, violent conflict can be contained. With primary reference to the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and comparisons to cases from Africa, Pakistan, and other arenas of tribal social formations, the account explores how rituals such as wealth disbursement, oath taking, sacrifice, and formal apologies are often used as a means of averting or transcending acts of vengeance after violence. Through exploration of the balance between revenge and compensation at different junctures in the peace-making process, this compelling text devises a thought-provoking and inventive analysis that would benefit countless communities in conflict around the world.

Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart are a husband-and-wife research team presently based in the anthropology department at the University of Pittsburgh. They are coeditors of three book series and former coeditors of the Journal of Ritual Studies. They are the coauthors of more than 45 books, including Curing and Healing: Medical Anthropology in Global Perspective, Minorities and Memories: Survivals and Extinctions in Scotland and Western Europe, and Witchcraft, Sorcery, Rumors and Gossip.