The  Research Programme Contemporary Ethnography is hosting the seminar: "A new man: The Cosmological Horizons of Development, Curses and Personhood in Vanuatu" by Knut Rio (University of Bergen).

The semniar takes place Wednesday 7 November 2012 at 2.15-4.00 pm in meeting room 2, Stakladen.

All staff and students are welcome.

Abstract:

The point of departure in this paper is an Ambrym origin myth, a development project, and a specific Melanesian reading of the Bible. I ask: what are the cosmological grounds for people's involvement in projects of development, what kinds of agencies and realms of knowledge do people consult, and what is the relatior between structure and event when we consider activities of cosmological importance? The paper refers to a visionary man whose great ambition is both to produce a total account of Ambrym cosmology and this includes a new way of textualising ontology, of organising meanings and practices around a sense of the written text as central to achieving a better life. He also has visions of building a cement factory that will transform everyday life by making possible modern brick houses and modern infrastructure. His creative labours testify to certain ways of conceptualizing social process through new religious constellations that anticipate both a prosperous future and a better man. In this context we understand cosmology to be an irreducible dimension for understanding Ambrymese investments in processes of development and change.