The Bone and the Breath
Life-bringing ancestors: the social and cosmic system of the Paimboas (New Caledonia)
30 €
Presentation
“The bone and the breath” is the name that Kanak Paimboas chiefs give themselves during ceremonial speeches for burials and ritual exchanges. The meaning of this phrase reflects the society’s underlying aim to transform the dead into ancestors. For harvesting yam crops in the gardens requires the assistance of the ancestors – and, if this is to occur, the recently deceased must become ancestors.
By studying ceremonial speeches and rites, this book sheds light on a society that does not oppose nature and culture, but extends into the universe, particularly the plant world. For this reason, funerals, which synchronize the end of the human life cycle with the yam cycle, represent a restoration of social and cosmic order and a return to life. Horticulture and funerals are thus part of a vast ritual cycle which, in mobilizing all of society, reflects precolonial heritage as well as elements adopted from economic globalization.
Author
Dominik Bretteville is a lecturer at UCO (Catholic University of the West) in Angers. This study builds on more than two years spent living with the Paimboas tribe in New Caledonia.
367 pages
16 x 24 cm
Publication: 01/10/2019
ISBN: 9782858313129