Michael Nihill

Biographic Data

ID3673438
NAMEMichael Nihill
GIVEN NAMESMichael
FAMILY NAMENihill
SIGNATURENIHILL M
AFFILIATIONSThe University of Sydney
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS14
TOTAL CITATIONS57
AUTHOR COUNT13
EDITOR COUNT1
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1988
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2010
H-INDEX5

  • Kabit, Rimbu and Opa: Modalities of Anganen Sacrifice 1

    Open AccessMichael NihillARTICLEOceania2010

    At the time of colonisation and missionisation that quickly saw their abandonment, the Anganen practised two male exclusive cults in which animals were sacrificed in the hope of influencing powerful spirits. One cult, kabit , was only staged to overcome serious affliction thought to be sent by the spirits to individuals of subclans or women married into them. That is, it was a reaction to spirit power. The other cult, rimbu , while practised in r…

  • The 'Two Men' of Anganen Exchange: Structure and Concepts of the Individual in Highland Papua New Guinea

    Open AccessMichael NihillARTICLEMankind2009Cited by: 7References: 11

    This paper addresses some of the political implications of exchange structure in Highland Papua New Guinea. It focuses largely on the dual exchange modes (termed mundane and ceremonial) of the Anganen (SHP). By considering variation within a corpus of factors concerning social relations, gender, material provisioning, the meaning of exchange and valuables, and so on, each mode can be seen to give rise to a particular notion of transactor, one hea…

  • Dangerous Visions: The Cassowary as Good to Think and Good to Remember among the Anganen

    Open AccessMichael NihillARTICLEOceania2002

    The cassowary, although no longer a popular animal for possession or gift exchange in contemporary Anganen, is good to think in the Lévi‐Straussian sense and good to remember. Its excessive violence may stand for the violence of which men are capable. This is the case for inter‐group warfare. It also refers to intra‐community hostilities, not sharing cassowary meat being a frequent cause for clan fission and an agonistic exchange called rawa wher…

  • Not Feasting with Friends: The Meaning of Meat in Anganen

    Open AccessMichael NihillARTICLEOceania2001

    There are two general ways that meat is deployed in exchange among the Anganen of the Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. One is communion that forges co‐identification between those eating together. The other is effectively the antithesis of communion. Food is given in formal prestation but explicitly through taboo or as an emergent property of how the exchange takes place; food giver and receiver do not consume meat from the same ani…

  • Steel to Stone: A Chronicle of Colonialism in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

    Jeffrey T Clark, Jeffrey Clark et al.BOOKSteel to stone2000Cited by: 8

    In this book the late Jeffrey Clark subjects the history of colonialism among the Wiru of Papua New Guinea to a fresh and subtle examination. He reflects upon his own fieldwork as an anthropologist as he scrutinizes the cultural construction of encounters and exchanges between New Guineans and Australians from the 1930s on. Colonized and colonizers alike are the focus of an analysis that draws upon theories of culture, temporality, discursive rep…

  • Gift Exchange as Sensory Experience Among the Anganen

    Open AccessMichael NihillARTICLEOceania2000Cited by: 5References: 24

    Gift exchange among the Anganen of the Southern Highlands Province (PNG) may be a complex, multifaceted sensory experience for participants and audience alike. This article primarily looks at the sensory dimensions of the organisation of space, with attention also given to sound, the immense heat of large pork distributions and the possibility of heightened emotional states such as trepidation or expectation that may feature in some events. These…

  • Time And The Red Other: Myth, history and the paradoxes of power in Anganen

    Michael NihillARTICLECanberra Anthropology1999Cited by: 4References: 13

    Les etudes recentes en histoire et en anthropologie ont montre l'importance des liens etroits entre le mythe, l'action sociale et le changement historique, en opposition a une vision figee sur les societes froides. Cet article propose l'analyse d'un mythe en relation avec l'histoire et les conceptions du temps chez les Anganen de la basse vallee de Lai-Nembi dans les basses terres meridionales de Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinee. Ce mythe concerne une f…

  • Alternating Ontologies: Exchange and Ritual in Anganen History

    Open AccessMichael NihillARTICLEThe Australian Journal of…1996

    In this article I examine the changing social and historical context of exchange and ritual amongst the Anganen of the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, a neglected theme in Highland ethnography. I focus primarily on the history of the incorporation of one spirit cult ritual, rimbu , and its relationship to the other major spirit cult, kabit , and just how these two cults inter‐relate with two major categories of exchange—the cerem…

  • Beyond Bodies: Aspects of the Politicisation of Exchange in the South‐West Highlands of Papua New Guinea

    Open AccessMichael NihillARTICLEOceania1996

    Different exchanges offer varying potential for transactors to gain prestige in Anganen, Southern Highlands (PNG). The central argument is that this variation — what I call politicisation — is in part linked with how bodies are variously appropriated as the premise upon which exchange is undertaken. The least prestigious for individual actors are collective prestations in which wealth acts as direct substitution for persons and their bodies. At t…

  • Pasts and presents: History, politics, and the representation of self and other in pacific ethnography

    Michael NihillARTICLEReviews in Anthropology1995References: 6

    Foerstel, Lenora and Angela Gilliam, eds. Confronting the Margaret Mead Legacy: Scholarship, Empire, and the South Pacific. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1992. xxxv + 298 pp. $34.95 cloth. Hays, Terence E., ed. Ethnographic Presents: Pioneering Anthropologists in the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. xv + 301 pp. including combined bibliography and index. $40.00 cloth

  • Obituary

    Open AccessMichael Nihill, Michael R NihillARTICLEOceania1995Cited by: 1

  • New Women And Wild Men: Development’, changing sexual practice and gender in Highland Papua New Guinea

    Michael NihillARTICLECanberra Anthropology1994Cited by: 14References: 13

    Apres avoir montre comment l'homme et la femme anganen des Hautes-Terres de Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinee acquierent leur autonomie, l'A. montre comment la notion de l'Autre et de Soi mais aussi la sexualite a evolue avec l'arrivee des « nouvelles » femmes, les « pamuk meri » (prostituees), les infirmieres, les missionnaires et les femmes urbaines salariees. L'A. aborde aussi le viol et montre en quoi les aspects politiques (Etat) et economiques (cap…

  • The New Pearlshells: Aspects of money and meaning in Anganen exchange

    Michael NihillARTICLECanberra Anthropology1989Cited by: 18

    (1989). The New Pearlshells: Aspects of money and meaning in Anganen exchange. Canberra Anthropology: Vol. 12, Culture and Development on Papua New Guinea, pp. 144-160

  • ‘Worlds at War With Themselves‘: Notions of the Antisociety in Anganen Ceremonial Exchange

    Open AccessMichael NihillARTICLEOceania1988

    Exchange is the central arena for the articulation of the social structure of the Anganen, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea. Despite a vast array of potential occasions, there are two main categories of exchange, ‘mundane’ and ‘extraordinary’ (or ‘ceremonial’). These contrast strongly in incidence, the items used, structural logic and many other ways, each giving rise to a particular ‘vision’ of society. Mundane exchange is dominated…