Anuta Solomon Islands

Ghosts in culture, histoire and spirit

The book offers a historic view of ghost cultures and explores ghosts as a place of suspense between conventional and alien worldliness. Nine case histories from Asian countries analyse the interplay of religion, society, psychology and history.

In these case histories, the different ways of approach offer a wealth of perspectives, each of the lenses highlighting different facets of the spiritual world. However, they all introduce a taste for historic processes in relation to mental and figurative attitudes to religions and shed a new light on the way ghosts deal with other cultures.

Anuta oral traditions : Polynesian runaway in the Solomon Islands: A..... - Richard Feinberg Professor of Anthropology Kent State University

To Anuta is a small Polyynesian fellowship in the East Solomon Islands that had very little exposure to external culturals. At the end of the 20th millennium it remained one of the most traditionally and insulated islands in the Pacific. Oral Traditions of Anuta is Richard Feinberg's expressive compilation of historic stories from ancient history, which includes tribal lyrics and translation into German.

The comprehensive and thorough compilation is the fruit of a collaboration between Feinberg and a large cross-section of the ANutane Fellowship that has evolved over a twenty-five year span. Ethnographically, the main focus of the book is a series of essays written by the island's most distinguished scholars on issues of historical tradition.

Feinberg's remarks, which give the readers important ethnographical and historic connections, illustrate important questions of linguistics and culture that arise from the histories. They have important consequences for the relation of verbal transmission to the story and to symbolism, and deliver new insights that are relevant to the subgroup of Polynesians. In addition, they give an overview of a number of anutanic traditions and concerns, while also pointing to some common Polish practice that dates back to the period before and early contacts.