Cult ritual and social organisation among the Mianmin

Abstract

The thesis is an analysis of the relationship between rituals of the male cult and social organisation among the Mianmin of the West Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. More specifically, i t deals with the West Mianmin, who live in the valleys of the major tributaries of the August River which flows out of the northern fringes of the central mountains. The Mianmin are hunter-horticulturalists whose main staple is taro. They are a widely dispersed group making use of large areas in their subsistence activities. They are the most northerly representatives of the Mountain Ok groups. Throughout the culture area a secret male cult, concerned with the initiation of boys and youths and the maintenance of subsistence production, is an important dimension of social life. The West Mianmin have moved into the areas they currently occupy within the last four or five generations. This movement has resulted in various changes in the social characteristies of the migrating groups. There have also been transformations in the frequency, form and content of the initiation rituals which are the most important part of cult activity. More generally, the cult and the world-view which informs i t , are less important in the social l i fe of the migrant groups in lower altitudes than they are in that of the groups remaining in the ancestral territories of the Mianmin. The thesis argues that the characteristics of cult rituals in different parts of the area are to be understood in terms of the sociological changes resulting from the migration of groups. However the West Mianmin population is not to be seen as a collection of isolated groups. Rather, i t is a complex unit in which differences between groups are part of the general social processes which have been taking place during the last few generations. So, although cult practices are variable, they are all explicable in terms of the historical developments of the migrant groups. The practices are also intelligible by reference to the same set of beliefs and ideas. I t is further argued that the beliefs which explain cult practices are themselves only explicable in terms of wider Mianmin conceptions of the world, its basic structure and processes. In the context of these wider beliefs the relationship between the cult and social organisation may be explained by its role in the political process. In particular, the changes in the political relations between groups that have migrated into the lowlands underlie the attenuation of the cult rituals in these areas. Among the migrant groups, the capacity of cult ideology to maintain its claim to be the only legitimate means of reproducing Mianmin culture, is undermined by the altered social relations obtaining in the lowlands. The small West Mianmin population, and the heterogeneity of social and cult practices, make it impossible to analyse social life using orthodox structural models. The weak institutionalisation of Mianmin social forms, including cult rituals, means that the analytical procedures used in the explanation of social life in larger, more homogeneous societies, cannot be used. Throughout the thesis, Durkheimian perspectives are critically engaged as the argument develops. Show more