Cosmology, resources, and landscape: agencies of the dead and the living in duna, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Among the Duna people of Papua New Guinea, ideas about the dead and the living are intertwined through cosmological perceptions of, and ritual interactions with, the landscape. These ideas change to accommodate and deal with new issues that arise. Malu (narratives of origins) link kin with land and to spirit figures. In the context of colonial and post-colonial mining for minerals and drilling for oil, malu have been reformulated as a way of claiming compensation from mining companies. Central to the Duna perspective is the notion that the agencies and substances of the dead and the living are interlinked. An act of suicide may lead to demands for compensation as a result of the suicide being caused by "shaming": the agency of the dead person therefore lives on. In images of this sort, the connection between the living and the dead is vividly portrayed. (Agency, ancestors, compensation, cosmology)