Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan
Book cover

Dream Travelers

Sleep Experiences and Culture in the Western Pacific

  • Book
  • © 2003

Overview

Authors:
  1. Roger Ivar Lohmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 69.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Roger Ivar Lohmann
    Pages 1-18

  3. Dreaming and the Defeat of Charisma

    • Joel Robbins
    Pages 19-42

  4. Dreaming and Ghosts among the Hagen and Duna of the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea

    • Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew J. Strathern
    Pages 43-60

  5. Dreamscapes

    • Wolfgang Kempf, Elfriede Hermann
    Pages 61-86

  6. Ambrymese Dreams and the Mardu Dreaming

    • Robert Tonkinson
    Pages 87-106

  7. “This Is Good Country. We Are Good Dreamers”

    • Sylvie Poirier
    Pages 107-126

  8. Dreams, Agency, and Traditional Authority in Northeast Arnhem Land

    • Ian Keen
    Pages 127-148

  9. Tiwi Island Dreams

    • Jane C. Goodale
    Pages 149-168

  10. The Cultural and Intersubjective Context of Dream Remembrance and Reporting

    • Douglas Hollan
    Pages 169-188

  11. Supernatural Encounters of the Asabano in Two Traditions and Three States of Consciousness

    • Roger Ivar Lohmann
    Pages 189-210

  12. Afterword

    • Waud Kracke
    Pages 211-235

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 237-246
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

In dreams, part of the self seems to wander off to undertake both mundane tasks and marvellous adventures. Anthropologists have found that many peoples take this experience of dreaming at face value, assuming that their spirits literally leave the body to travel, meet other spirits, and acquire valuable knowledge - with dramatic consequence for relationships, social organization, and religions. Dream Travellers is about Melanesian, Aboriginal Australian, and Indonesian peoples who hold this assumption. Several leading anthropologists contribute theoretically and ethnographically rich chapters, showing that attention to these peoples' dream lives deeply enhances our understanding of their cultures and waking lives as well.

Reviews

"Dream Travelers is a fine contribution to the current renewed interest in the study of dreams. The volume presents the research of a diverse group of distinguished anthropologists, all with experience in the rapidly changing societies of the Western Pacific.They show how these transformations are strikingly reflected in the dream life as well as the waking life of individuals.There are new data and new ideas here. They will prove influential in the broader study of dreams and consciousness." - Erika Bourguignon, Professor Emerita, Ohio State University

"My lasting impression following reading this fine collection of anthropological essays is of the dream as an alternative mode of cognition - as an important means of apprehending the world and engaging with others. Based on original fieldwork, each essay contributes rich ethnographic data to reveal the interaction between the apparently private inner realm of dreams, and shared, cultural phantasy systems. Lived culture emerges from this dynamic interplay. For all those with a serious interest in dreams, this book a 'must'. Furthermore, if there still remain any social or cultural anthropologists who feel that dreaming is a topic better left to the psychoanalyst, or dismissed entirely, this important collection will surely convince them otherwise." - Michele Stephen, Associate Professor of History, La Trobe University, Australia

"Returning to one of the foundational problems in anthropology, the authors of Dream Travelers explore the cultural significance of dreaming in a fascinating journey through Melanesia, aboriginal Australia and Indonesia. Powerfully evocative, the chapters are a pleasure to read in their own right while the collection as a whole propels our understanding of dreams in important new directions. Dream Travelers makes significant contributions to comparative ethnography, the anthropology of religion and the psychology of dreaming." - John Barker, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of British Columbia"A fascinating work on dreams and religion in the Western Pacific." - Mary N. McDonald, Le Moyne College

About the author

JANE C. GOODALE Professor Emerita of Anthropology at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, USA ELFRIEDE HERMANN Research Fellow of the Institute of Ethnology, University of Göttingen, Germany DOUGLAS HOLLAN Professor of Anthropology and Luckman Distinguished Teacher at University of California, Los Angeles, Senior Instructor at the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute, USA IAN KEEN Reader in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University, Australia WOLFGANG KEMPE Research Fellow of the Institute of Ethnology, University of Göttingen, Germany WAUD KRACKE Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois-Chicago, USA ROGER IVAR LOHMANN Instructor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Canada SYLVIE POIRIER Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at Université Laval , Canada JOEL ROBBINS Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, San Diego, USA PAMELA J. STEWART Research Associate in the Departments of Anthropology and Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, USA ANDREW J. STRATHERN Mellon Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA ROBERT TONKINSON Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Western Australia

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation