"In dreams, part of the self seems to wander off to undertake both mundane tasks and marvelous adventures. Anthropologists have found that many peoples take this experience of dreaming at face value, assuming that their spirits literally leave the body to travel, meet other spirits, and acquire valuable knowledge with dramatic consequence for relationships, social organization, and religions. ""Dream Travelers"" is about Melanesian, Aboriginal Australian, and Indonesian peoples who hold this assumption. Several leading anthropologists contribute theoretically and ethnographically rich chapters, showing that attention to these peoples' dream lives deeply enhances our understanding of their cultures and waking lives as well."
Edited by:
R. Lohmann
Imprint: Palgrave
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 140mm,
Spine: 19mm
Weight: 335g
ISBN: 9781403963307
ISBN 10: 1403963304
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 13 November 2003
Audience:
General/trade
,
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
ELT Advanced
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Illustrations Preface About the Contributors Dream Travels and Anthropology; R.I.Lohmann Dreaming and the Defeat of Charisma; J.Robbins Dreaming and Ghosts Among the Hagen and Duna of the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea; P.J.Stewart & A.J.Strathern Dreamscapes: Transcending the Local in Initiation Rites among the Ngaing of Papua New Guinea; W.Kempe & E.Hermann Ambrymese Dreams and the Mardu Dreaming; R.Tonkinson 'This is good country. We are good dreamers': Dreams and Dreaming in the Australian Western Desert; S.Poirier Dreams, Agency, and Traditional Authority in Northeast Arnhem Land; I.Keen Tiwi Island Dreams; J.C.Goodale The Cultural and Intersubjective Context of Dream Remembrance and Reporting: Dreams, Aging, and the Anthropological Encounter in Toraja, Indonesia; D.Hollan Supernatural Encounters of the Asabano in Two Traditions and Three States of Consciousness; R.I.Lohmann Beyond the Mythologies: A Shape of Dreaming; W.Kracke
Reviews for Dream Travelers: Sleep Experiences and Culture in the Western Pacific
Dream Travelers is a fine contribution to the current renewed interest in the study of dreams. The volume presents the research of a diverse group of distinguished anthropologists, all with experience in the rapidly changing societies of the Western Pacific.They show how these transformations are strikingly reflected in the dream life as well as the waking life of individuals.There are new data and new ideas here. They will prove influential in the broader study of dreams and consciousness. --Erika Bourguignon, Professor Emerita, Ohio State University <br> My lasting impression following reading this fine collection of anthropological essays is of the dream as an alternative mode of cognition - as an important means of apprehending the world and engaging with others. Based on original fieldwork, each essay contributes rich ethnographic data to reveal the interaction between the apparently private inner realm of dreams, and shared, cultural phantasy systems. Lived culture emergese
