Vavrova, Daniela (2018) The Rocking of Canoe and Custom: Shifts in Ambonwari’s: Perception of Invisible Realm, Secrecy and Village Hierarchy. Le Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 146. pp. 55-62.

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Abstract

This article explores the ways of communicating with the spirits in the Ambonwari village of East Sepik Province in Papua New Guinea. Due to the Roman Catholic Church and Catholic charismatic movement, many customary practices have been abandoned over the last twenty years while some are still occasionally performed. One of the latter is kay wurukrarin (rocking canoe). This practice used to be a traditional way of asking the spirit of the land or/and the creek if one was going to catch fish or kill a pig. The current influence of information and communications technology, mobile phones in particular, has had a significant impact on a variety of practices including communication with the spirits. Besides the practice of rocking canoe, I present a case study of a sacrifice and show how certain traditional ways of doing things can be brought back to practice when one suffers. By modifying their perception of the invisible realm, the Ambonwari are also re-arranging village hierarchy.

Item ID:	90959
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1760-7256
Copyright Information:	Copyright © 2018 the authors. The text alone is usable under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license . Other elements (illustrations, imported attachments) may be subject to specific usage permissions.
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2026 03:29
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4401 Anthropology > 440107 Social and cultural anthropology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1399 Other culture and society > 139999 Other culture and society not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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