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- Title
Madness and colonisation: the embodiment of power in Pangia.
- Authors
Clark, Jeffrey
- Abstract
The article considers two examples of 'madness' which occurred during the colonial era in Pangia district, Southern Highlands Province, PNG. The first, immediately prior to pacification, concerned outbreaks of madness among young Wiru men which were similar to the 'wildman' behaviour described in the Highlands ethnography. The second style of madness was associated with the so-called 'hysteria' accompanying revival activity by Christian missions. The two styles are compared using a Foucauldian perspective, primarily for the ways in which colonial technologies of power were inscribed on the bodies of Pangia people. The article presents an anatomy of colonial power, and suggests an ethnohistory of the body is possible. It examines the ways in which this power was created through discourses and practices involving concepts of the 'primitive' and 'heathen,' resulting in a transformation of the Wiru subject.
- Subjects
COLONIZATION; ETHNOHISTORY; HISTORY of Christian missions; WIRU (Papua New Guinean people); HISTORY of Papua New Guinea
- Publication
Oceania, 1992, Vol 63, Issue 1, p15
- ISSN
0029-8077
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1002/j.1834-4461.1992.tb00365.x