Harvey Whitehouse

Inside the Cult by Harvey Whitehouse

Anthropological look at a cult in Papua New Guinea. A rural group which has been out-manipulated by a rival tribe sums up their situation with: We look back because we are lost in the world of the White Man’s knowledge.

The book follows a splinter group that believes that a miracle will occur and that a new epoch called The Period of the Companies will begin. They will all become white and the ancestors, who run something called the Village Government will introduce a period of industrialization. They hold vigils lead by two tribe members one of whom is possessed by the spirit of the ancestor and becomes a deity.

In the final chapter Whitehouse puts forward his theory about the difference between Doctrinal religious modes and those that rely on the Imagistic approach. The first relies on words, the second on emotive and symbolic actions, with the second positing ecstatic states of arousal. His tribe’s people dance near naked and summon the end with a huge pig feast. Since the tribe members are also subject to long harangues based on the 10 commandments it seems as if Whitehouse has downplayed some of the actions to fit his theory. Also his interest in an kind of inside baseball categorization at the end in which he plays his argument against other theorists and their dichotomies isn’t helpful to those of us who are not steeped in these theories. What is left out is enormous. We don’t really get to know these people and the psychology of their world isn’t dealt with. We miss Pritchard and his witchcraft study which told you why this appealed. Not well written either.… (mere)