Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart Photographs and Audiorecordings, 1964-1998 (MSS 477)

Restrictions: Original sound recordings are restricted. Listening copies may be available for researchers.

Extent: 0.4 Linear feet (1 archives box)

Digital Content

Sound recordings from this collection have been digitized. Please request sound recordings directly from the finding aid for access facilitated through the Library's virtual reading room service.

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Photographs and audiorecordings of Professor Andrew Strathern and Dr. Pamela J. Stewart, who are a husband and wife research team. Strathern and Stewart have carried out long-term fieldwork in the Western and Southern Highlands Provinces of Papua New Guinea, studying political and economic systems, kinship, religion, symbolism, genre identities, life histories, and farming practices.

Professor Andrew Strathern and Dr. Pamela J. Stewart are a husband and wife research team who carry out long-term fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, primarily with the Duna and Wiru people of the Southern Highlands Province and the Melpa people of the Western Highlands Province, as well as, in Scotland, Ireland, Taiwan, Japan, and The Netherlands. Andrew Strathern is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Anthropology and Pamela J. Stewart is Research Associate at the Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh. Drawing both on their fieldwork and analysis of older written sources, they published extensively and co-authored articles and books.

Strathern and Stewart have a broad range of research interests within anthropology. Strathern's research interest include the analysis of political and economic systems, kinship theories, social change, religion, symbolism, ethnicity, legal anthropology, conflict and violence, the anthropology of the body, and the cross-cultural study of medical systems. Stewart's research focuses on women's identities and life histories, farming practices and national identity, patient/physician communication, religious change and sorcery, forms of violence and its impact in the U.S., Scotland, and Papua New Guinea.

Photographs and audiorecordings from the Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart collection document daily life, customs, and song performances of Wiru, Melpa, and Duna speaking people of Papua New Guinea, Western and Southern Highlands Provinces. The collection comprises three sets of photographs and two tapes with audiorecordings that were produced during fieldwork conducted over two decades in Papua New Guinea.

The collection is arranged in two series: 1) PHOTOGRAPHS and 2) AUDIORECORDINGS.

Container List

PHOTOGRAPHS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 1) PHOTOGRAPHS: This series comprises three sets of black-and-white and color photographs taken during long-term fieldwork conducted in Western and Sourthern Highlands Provinces of Papua New Guinea. The materials are arranged in three sets preserving the titles and original order supplied by the owner.

The first set of photographs was taken among the Wiru-speaking people of Pangia and dates from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The photographs document the construction of a longhouse at Mamuane, as well as facial decoration and costumes of Tunda male recipients.

The second set of photographs, the largest in the collection, is comprised of 153 black-and-white photographs, dating from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s. Photographs document the performances of the AMB KOR-Female Spirit Ritual - one of the most important indigenous cults that is practiced in the Western and Southern Highlands Provinces of Papua New Guinea. The images detail the events that occured during the ritual's enactment in the Melpa speaking vicinity of Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. The photographs capture various stages of the ritual sequence including preparations, pig sacrifices, and final gatherings and celebrations and were published in The Spirit Is Coming (1999) with extensive text commentaries by Andrew Strathern and Pamela J. Stewart.

The third set is a collection of color photographs taken among the Duna-speaking people in Hagu Village of the Southern Highland Province of Papua New Guinea, dating from 1998. The photographs capture daily occupations, customs, and traditional outfits of villagers as well as the village's natural setting and environment. Well documented in the set is food preparation and consumption.

Box 1 Folder 1
Photo Set 1 - Pangia, Papua New Guinea

Seven photographs taken among the Wiru-speaking people of Pangia, PNG, dating from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. Includes captions.

Box 1 Folder 2
Photo Set 2 - Part I (Nos. 1-67) - AMB KOR (Female Spirit) - Mt. Hagen, Papua New Guinea

Photographs taken among the Melpa-speaking people of Mt. Hagen, PNG, dating from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.

Box 1 Folder 3
Photo Set 2 - Part II (Nos. 68-153) - AMB KOR (Female Spirit) - Mt. Hagen, Papua New Guinea

Photographs taken among the Melpa-speaking people of Mt. Hagen, PNG, dating from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.

Box 1 Folder 4
Photo Set 3 - Duna, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea - Hagu Village, 1998

Photographs taken among the Duna-speaking people of Hagu Village. Set contains 25 photographs.

AUDIORECORDINGS

Scope and Content of Series

Series 2) AUDIORECORDINGS: This series comprises two tapes recorded in 1967 in Pangia, Papua New Guinea. The tapes document Namasu sing-sing, a celebration for an opening of a store, stories of tambaran cults told by local informants, and woman and man stories. The collection contains both the original 3" reel to reel recordings and listener copies on cassette.

Box 1 Folder 5
Tape 1 - Pangia, Papua New Guinea, 1967

"Contents: (1) Namasu sing-sing [i.e., celebration for opening of NAMASU tradestore, Native Marketing and Supply Union of the Luthern Church in PNG], (2) jaw's harp songs, (3) Longai [an older male informant] speaking about the tambaran cults [Laiyeroa and Tapa, the Female Spirit and Male Spirit cults]."

Box 1 Folder 6
Tape 2 - Pangia, Papua New Guinea, 1967

"Contents: (1) Continuation of Longai [an older male informant], (2) stories narrated by Tungu, a Pangia woman and Koke, a Pangia man, (3) jaw's harp songs."