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Revisioning the Past, Remembering the Future: Duna Accounts of the World's End
Author(s) -
Haley Nicole
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
oceania
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1834-4461
pISSN - 0029-8077
DOI - 10.1002/j.1834-4461.1996.tb02559.x
Subject(s) - reinterpretation , narrative , new guinea , revelation , negotiation , history , space (punctuation) , aesthetics , geography , sociology , literature , ethnology , art , philosophy , social science , linguistics
Taking as my example, the memories of Duna people at Lake Kopiago, who inhabit the northwestern part of the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, I illustrate some of the ways events, and memories of them, have been constructed, manipulated and recast over the last twenty five years. By paying particular attention to a well known originary narrative, I show that space, the revelation of new knowledge via a spirit medium and the reinterpretation and negotiation of the meanings attached to events can result in the production of new memories about the past and the future.