Naven or the other self: a relational approach to ritual action

Preliminary Material -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Foreword -- Bateson and Naven -- The Intellectual Background -- Contradiction, Paradox, Condensation -- Naven after Bateson -- Maternals Versus Paternals -- Wife-Givers and Wife-Takers -- Metamorphoses of the Mother -- The Procreator -- Towards a Theory of Ritual Action -- Defining Ritual Form -- The Ritual as a Whole -- Defining Ritual Symbolism -- Conclusion and Perspectives: A Relational Approach to Ritual -- References -- Index -- Plates -- List of Plates -- Studies in the History of Religions Numen Book Series.

This book proposes a novel approach to the analysis of ritual action. Founded upon an in-depth study of the transvestism naven ceremony of the Iatmul of Papua New Guinea, it focuses on the relational and interactive forms entailed by ritual performance.