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Ethnohistory 47.1 (2000) 3-27



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Introduction:
Latencies and Realizations in Millennial Practices

Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern


The millennium is a time for many people to contemplate the possibilities that might arise during this liminal period of transition. Various sorts of dangers are feared at this time of passage into a new world of temporality. In some ways it is analogous to the marking of a hyper New Year in which resolutions are made, expectations are high, and the fears of unexpected events loom. Emotions run high as uncertainties about the future arise. The Y2K computer problem is only one example of this: an apocalyptic computer crash is envisioned as destroying data and producing logistic, financial, and other forms of chaos.

The year 2000 holds significance for many people in the Christian world (Landes 1996; Schwartz 1997; Gould 1997). Although the Christian calendar does not correlate with such forms as Judaic, Hindu, or Chinese calendrical timekeeping, it does impinge on worldwide communities to one degree or another through the process of globalization (e.g., economic, political, and social networks). The Christian notion of thousand-year cyclical intervals in which significant events transpire parallels other forms of ritual cyclicity such as those found in many New Guinea cosmological systems. These systems anticipate an end that generates an anxiety over what individuals must do to leap beyond the end of this time into the projected then time.

Using a variety of dating methods, Christian societies have been expecting Jesus’ return at the end of the twentieth century. Some Christians have expressed the belief that the world is going to end at this time. Others believe that a renewal and refurbishing of the world will take place, heralding in a better life for the “faithful.” An “end times” versus “new world” [End Page 3] tension thus exists, sometimes with both beliefs arising as viable possibilities within the thinking of a single religious community or individual. In the communities of the New Guinea Highlands, where we conduct our research, the new world notions seem to be overtaking those of the end times concept as the year 2000 approaches (see the sections in this article on the Duna and on Hagen). The arrival of the twenty-first century provides a unique historical moment in which to examine the impact of Christian fundamentalist thinking, as well as other parameters of modernity, on New Guinea communities.

The essays in this special issue examine the millennial, the end time, and the new world beliefs and fears that exist among the peoples of New Guinea—a Pacific island with great geographical diversity, ranging from tropical coastal lands to riverine estuaries and montane interiors. It is also one of the most linguistically diverse places on earth (Pawley and Ross 1993; Foley 1986). The eastern half of the island is Papua New Guinea, which gained independence from Australian colonial powers in 1975 and is constitutionally a Christian country. Christianity has been and continues to be a powerful force toward defining local and national forms of identity (Strathern and Stewart 1999a). The western half of New Guinea is Irian Jaya, a province of Indonesia. The Indonesian government recognizes five religions: Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Islam, and Protestant Christianity (Kipp and Rodgers 1987). Citizens are required by the government to affiliate themselves with one of these religions as theirs in order to qualify to vote.

This special issue of Ethnohistory examines some aspects of Christianity in New Guinea today and contributes to the larger question, What is the future of religion in the Pacific? Two hundred years after the arrival of the first Christians, newer denominations continue to make appearances and the process of change, as ever, continues. Christian influence in the Pacific has been an arena of interest for anthropologists for some time (for example, see Barker 1990; Trompf 1990, 1991; Otto and Borsboom 1997; van der Veer 1996; in addition, a three-year cycle of sessions on charismatic and fundamentalist Christianity in the Pacific, organized by Joel Robbins for the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, was completed in 1999...

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