Of Humans, Pigs, and Souls – An Essay on the Yagwoia "Womba" Complex

Jadran Mimica is a senior lecturer in anthropology at the University of Sydney. He is the author of Intimations of Infinity: The Cultural Meanings of the Iqwaye Counting and Number Systems and of many contributions to psychoanalytic anthropology and Melanesian ethnography.

"Complex spatial and temporal settings define this creative work. . . . Mimica stands out for his linguistic competence and his intense focus on subjectivity. His close reading will likely gain in stature as the region becomes subject to comparative, transformational analysis, a circumstance Mimica’s intense description facilitates. . . . Mimica’s erudition rises on every page."

• IntroductionChapter 1. The womba condition of the soulThe causes and attributes of womba soul affliction and shamanistic treatmentThe case of QangThe desire for pig-meatChapter 2. Men and women as wombaThe case of QwoqwoldateThe case of WoGayeA specifically female aspect of the womba complexWomba killingChapter 3. Womba self-experienceThe case of OMitaneThe case of OApChapter 4. The spectrum of Yagwoia cannibalismAn inside perspectiveExo- and endo- modesExperience of necrophagyChapter 5. On ki’nye (sorcery) and the mother’s breast’s maledictionThe mirror-circuit of the mother’s breast’s maledictionSorcery in hindsightChapter 6. The womba complex in regional perspectiveThe non-Angan outsidersReverberations of the complex among neighboring Angan groupsA comparative amplificationAnkavi ombi’ and the Yagwoia wombaThe womba imaginary and the body: closure and openingChapter 7. Concluding reflections: A new wave of ChristianizationA Melanesian berit (covenant)Metamorphosis of the imago Dei and the spirit of the global Evangelion