Sorcery and the Silencing of Chiefs
"Words on the Wind" in Postindependence Ambae
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2956646 |
|---|---|
| Authors | William Rodman, William L Rodman (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 217-235 |
| Publication date | 1993-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/jar.49.3.3630495 |
| OpenAlex | W2329700261 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 14 |
In this paper I discuss what I learned from being the "son" of a Pacific island chief who was accused of committing murder by magical means. My research on Ambae in Vanuatu lends cross-cultural support to the idea in current African ethnography that sorcery often serves as an idiom for discourse about local power and privilege in "weak" postcolonial states. On Ambae, as in the Cameroons, sorcery accusations are a leveling discourse, a protest on the part of women, the young, and the powerless against the persistence of old forms of inequality in a new era of postcolonial politics. I also show how ambiguities in sorcery beliefs on Ambae blur questions of innocence and guilt. Ultimately, my "father" was forced to accept his political fate in the bitter knowledge that his enemies may have been right, that the "words on the wind" might have whispered the truth
Ethnography · Innocence · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Privilege (computing · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law
Talking it Through
Development, Tourism and Commodification of Cultures in Vanuatu
Handling Sorcery in a State System of Law
‘Operation Restore Public Hope’
Policing the Holy Nation
Finding the Diamond
Tides of Innovation in Oceania
Bisnis, risriskure, sosialitet – Melanesisk egalitet og pengebasert modernitet på Ahamb, Vanuatu
La sorcellerie en Mélanésie
Reconsidering Witchcraft
Symbols of Empowerment
Drinking Money and Pulling Women
Good company and violence
Courts and Courtship in a New Hebridean Society1
Sorcery and Danger
Rethinking Kastom
The Hundred Days of Sara Mata
Masters of Tradition
The Demise of the Man Who Would Be King
Just Talk
Robinson Crusoe and Friday
Witchcraft, Gossip and Death
A Law Unto Themselves
When Questions Are Answers
Sorcery, Witchcraft and Accumulation
Sorcery and the State
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,52 |
| Citation span | 2003 - 2017 (15) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |