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The spirit and the gifts: Dako, Benjamin Morrell and cargo in the Vitiaz trading area, New Guinea

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posted on 2023-06-09, 02:53 authored by Jennifer Blythe, James FairheadJames Fairhead
In 1830 an American trader, Benjamin Morrell, abducted Dako, the son of a prominent leader from Uneapa Island in the Bismarck Sea, took him to New York and, four years later, returned him to Uneapa. Dako's encounter with America and his return provides insight into the region half a century before colonization, and in particular into local mytho-practical knowledge at that time. This enables us to discern subsequent transformations. Myths concerning an origin spirit and guardian of the dead, Pango, which then dominated Uneapa cosmology have since ‘disappeared’. This, we argue, is not because Pango has been superseded or suppressed, but because the parallel ‘white’ world over which the mytho-practical Pango presided has become ever more manifest as Uneapa has been drawn into a colonial, post-colonial and globalised world. Today, Pango refers predominantly to white people. Islander's experience of American ‘Pango’ was a shocking event at the time, but we show how trading with Pango established transformatory possibilities for reciprocal trading relations with the dead which remain the concern of today's Cult movement on the island.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Oceania

ISSN

0029-8077

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

1

Volume

87

Page range

21-37

Department affiliated with

  • Anthropology Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-09-14

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2018-10-17

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-09-14

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