![]() In neighbouring areas Nzari is variously known as Jari (Tamoane, 1977 see also Hogbin 1996: 34-35 Kulick, 1992: 158 Lipset, 1997: 168 A. Th. Nzari features as a powerful female figure in the mythical narratives of several societies along the North Coast as well as in the Lower Sepik-Ramu inland area. I would like to express my appreciation to the anonymous reviewers on behalf of the Journal de la Société des Océanistes for their valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this article.ġTo understand female agency, related emotions, and male-female relationships in the Bosmun area of Papua New Guinea, where I have been conducting anthropological research since 2004, one needs to know about the mythical heroine Nzari. Bien que le sens, le contenu et l’usage de ces objets aient été dévalués, ces objets n’ont cependant pas perdu de leur puissance puisque les femmes continuent à être engagées émotionnellement vis-à-vis d’eux tout en prenant en compte les changements culturels. De nos jours, à cause des importantes transformations sociales que connait la Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée contemporaine, les femmes de Bosmun manifestent leurs émotions et leur capacité d’agir vis-à-vis « des objets de Nzari » d’une façon parfois complexe et ambivalente. L’histoire de Nzari et du pouvoir féminins se matérialisent ainsi dans un certain nombre d’objets. Suivant la cosmologie locale, Nzari donna aux femmes les insignes de l’identité féminine, insignes universels, respectés et puissants : le feu, les poteries, les bols en bois, les pagaies et les massues. J’analyse les formes matérielles sous le prisme des sentiments qui se déploient face aux matériaux liés aux relations avec l’héroïne mythique Nzari. ![]() Due to wider societal transformations in contemporary Papua New Guinea, Bosmun women today enact emotions, agency, and power in complex and sometimes ambivalent ways in relation to “Nzari’s objects.” While some of the contents, meanings, and practices relating to these objects have been devalued, the objects themselves do not lose their agency since women continue to emotionally engage with them while making sense of a changing cultural world.Ĭet article examine les interactions entre la matérialité, les émotions et la capacité d’agir féminine dans l’aire Bosmun, située sur le cours inférieur du Ramu en Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée. Nzari’s story and the associated female power thus materializes in a number of objects. Following local cosmology, Nzari gave women the markers of female identity that are universally considered respected and powerful insignia: fire, clay pots, wooden bowls, paddles, and clubs. The material forms that I address by means of an emotion-focused materiality approach relate to a prominent mythical heroine called Nzari. This essay explores the interplay between materiality, emotions, and female agency in the Bosmun area, located at Papua New Guinea’s Lower Ramu River.
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