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Henry has arisen: Gender and hierarchy in Vanuatu's Anglican Church
Author(s) -
Lind Craig
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the australian journal of anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.245
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1757-6547
pISSN - 1035-8811
DOI - 10.1111/taja.12195
Subject(s) - ceremony , christianity , clan , opposition (politics) , hierarchy , sociology , gender relations , gender studies , religious studies , theology , law , political science , philosophy , anthropology , politics
Although Christianity and kastom [Note 1. kastom designates things, ideas, practices, etc. that are considered ...] can be opposed in many important respects, ni‐Vanuatu[Note 2. Ni‐Vanuatu is the officially recognised term for the indigenous ...] are far from limited by the different opportunities that they each offer. Here, I draw on gender as an ethnographically derived form of description to stress that the relations composing encounters of Christianity and kastom , church leader and chief, allow ni‐Vanuatu to imagine and create possibilities for engaging these alternatives in order to share, exchange or take on their specific capacities. I consider the example of an event in which a Church leader offered to extend an emplaced island identity, through the Anglican Church, in exchange for a kastom chief's assistance to scale‐up the appearance of his clan support during his ordination ceremony. In this case gendered difference, and not opposition or conflict, characterises kastom and Christianity's relationship.