Wow! eBook
Ancient Religions of the Austronesian World: From Australasia to Taiwan
Author(s): Julian Baldick (Author)
- Publisher: I.B. Tauris
- Publication Date: 30 Mar. 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 256 pages
- ISBN-10: 9781780763668
- ISBN-13: 1780763662
Book Description
This unique overview of Austronesian belief and tradition – the author’s final book, and published posthumously – will be essential reading for students of religion, prehistory and anthropology.
Editorial Reviews
Review
This is a book inspired by the great French Indo-European comparativist, Georges Dumézil. It is an attempt to identify central features of early Austronesian religious life: first, a deep concern with incorporative mortuary rituals that generally included secondary burial; second, an associated commitment to headhunting to bolster prosperity and community prestige; and third, the performance of agrarian rituals linked to hunting whose emphasis was on human fertility. To illustrate these ancient Austronesian religious ideas, Julian Baldick has selectively surveyed a considerable ethnographic literature covering the Austronesian populations from Madagascar to Hawaii to document the diverse and varied evidence that can be considered as lingering refractions of an earlier Austronesian way of life. This is a book with a broad sweep that retains its clear focus. It is a welcome endeavour and will undoubtedly stimulate further comparative Austronesian research. –James J Fox, Professor, Research School of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University
This is a book inspired by the great French Indo-European comparativist, Georges Dumézil. It is an attempt to identify central features of early Austronesian religious life: first, a deep concern with incorporative mortuary rituals that generally included secondary burial; second, an associated commitment to headhunting to bolster prosperity and community prestige; and third, the performance of agrarian rituals linked to hunting whose emphasis was on human fertility. To illustrate these ancient Austronesian religious ideas, Julian Baldick has selectively surveyed a considerable ethnographic literature covering the Austronesian populations from Madagascar to Hawaii to document the diverse and varied evidence that can be considered as lingering refractions of an earlier Austronesian way of life. This is a book with a broad sweep that retains its clear focus. It is a welcome endeavour and will undoubtedly stimulate further comparative Austronesian research. –James J Fox, Professor, Research School of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University
This is a book inspired by the great French Indo-European comparativist, Georges Dumézil. It is an attempt to identify central features of early Austronesian religious life: first, a deep concern with incorporative mortuary rituals that generally included secondary burial; second, an associated commitment to headhunting to bolster prosperity and community prestige; and third, the performance of agrarian rituals linked to hunting whose emphasis was on human fertility. To illustrate these ancient Austronesian religious ideas, Julian Baldick has selectively surveyed a considerable ethnographic literature covering the Austronesian populations from Madagascar to Hawaii to document the diverse and varied evidence that can be considered as lingering refractions of an earlier Austronesian way of life. This is a book with a broad sweep that retains its clear focus. It is a welcome endeavour and will undoubtedly stimulate further comparative Austronesian research. –James J Fox, Professor, Research School of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University
