Beschreibung
This study explores the processes of Christianization among the Somaip, a linguistically
divided but ritually united group of clans in the western Highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork from 1998 to 2000, it focuses on three major issues: (a)
conversion motives, (b) the dynamics of ‘indigenizing’ Christianity, and (c) the negotiation of
a new (Christian) identity.
The analysis proceeds from an extensive reconstruction of pre-Christian concepts and ritual
practices which are also situated in a wider regional context. It is only against this richly
painted background of the ancestral religion that one can appreciate the distinctive vigour of
current Somaip Christianity as it has been shaped by the creative blending of two religious
traditions and the tensions and resonances perceived between them.
