03473 am 22006133u 450 991016517870332120231107225316.01-76046-075-3(CKB)3710000001068997(Au-PeEL)EBL4801385(CaPaEBR)ebr11345402(OCoLC)973830841(MiAaPQ)EBC4801385(oapen)https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/28970(EXLCZ)99371000000106899720170302h20162016 uy 0engurmn#||||||||rdacontentrdamediardacarrierAn archaeology of early Christianity in Vanuatu custom and religious change on Tanna and Erromango 1839-1920 /James L. FlexnerANU Press2016[Canberra, Australia] :ANU Press,2016.©20161 online resource (236 pages) illustrations, maps, tables; digital, PDF file(s)Terra Australis ;441-76046-074-5 Includes bibliographical references.Religious change is at its core a material as much as a spiritual process. Beliefs related to intangible spirits, ghosts, or gods were enacted through material relationships between people, places, and objects. The archaeology of mission sites from Tanna and Erromango islands, southern Vanuatu (formerly the New Hebrides), offer an informative case study for understanding the material dimensions of religious change. One of the primary ways that cultural difference was thrown into relief in the Presbyterian New Hebrides missions was in the realm of objects. Christian Protestant missionaries believed that religious conversion had to be accompanied by changes in the material conditions of everyday life. Results of field archaeology and museum research on Tanna and Erromango, southern Vanuatu, show that the process of material transformation was not unidirectional. Just as Melanesian people changed religious beliefs and integrated some imported objects into everyday life, missionaries integrated local elements into their daily lives. Attempts to produce ‘civilised Christian natives’, or to change some elements of native life relating purely to ‘religion’ but not others, resulted instead in a proliferation of ‘hybrid’ forms. This is visible in the continuity of a variety of traditional practices subsumed under the umbrella term ‘kastom’ through to the present alongside Christianity. Melanesians didn’t become Christian, Christianity became Melanesian. The material basis of religious change was integral to this process.Terra Australis ;44.Archaeology and religionTanna Island (Vanuatu)Church history19th centuryEromanga (Vanuatu)Church history19th centuryvanuatuarchaeologyreligionErromangoJames Thomas FlexnerMelanesiansMissionaryNew HebridesTanna IslandTerra AustralisArchaeology and religion.200.9Flexner James L.942227MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910165178703321An archaeology of early Christianity in Vanuatu2126197UNINA