The Gently Bowing Person

This in-depth ethnography presents new and otherwise not easily accessible results of thirty years of anthropological field research among the Yupno people of Papua New Guinea. Anthropological studies about cultures in the Finisterre Range, where the Yupno live, have been quite scarce, and this comprehensive monograph about a local knowledge system offers an important contribution to this hitherto ethnographically little-known area. Ideas about personhood, including a unique personal melody as an individual's acoustic representation and sign of social belonging, and cultural conceptualisations of time and space are the main topics of this book. Following a strictly interdisciplinary approach, a cross-cultural psychologist, an anthropologist, a linguist, cognitive scientists and a musicologist participated in this study. These diverse forms and intensities of collaboration are mirrored in the distinctive structure of this book, with an emphasis on co-authored chapters to represent the joint research experience.