“An outstanding contribution to the scholarly study of the nature and causes of contemporary sorcery and witch panics in Melanesia, and their intersection with the waves of Christian revivalism sweeping through the region.” • Pacific Affairs
“Clearly written, the book reads easily and offers an accessible case study that students and scholars of the Pacific will find useful and informative. It adds to a growing literature on contemporary Melanesian Christianities and older anthropological concerns with social movements everywhere.” • Oceania
“Students and scholars of the Pacific will appreciate this clearly written monograph. It adds to a growing literature on contemporary Christianities, social movements, personhood, and sorcery in postcolonial communities. Bratrud frames the story as one of an anxious balance between people’s hopes and fears. What drives people to desire and animate change in their lives?” • Lamont Lindstrom, University of Tulsa
“It is an amazing story. It is a remarkable book. There is nothing like it out there.” • Tanya Luhrmann, Stanford University
In 2014, the island of Ahamb in Vanuatu became the scene of a startling Christian revival movement led by thirty children with ‘spiritual vision’. However, it ended dramatically when two men believed to be sorcerers and responsible for much of the society’s problems were hung by persons fearing for the island’s future security. Based on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork on Ahamb between 2010 and 2017, this book investigates how upheavals like the Ahamb revival can emerge to address and sometimes resolve social problems, but also carry risks of exacerbating the same problems they arise to address.
Tom Bratrud is Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen. He has conducted research in Vanuatu for over ten years and published a number of articles on religion, politics and social life.
LC: BV3777.V26 B79 2022
BISAC: REL116000 RELIGION/Religious Intolerance, Persecution & Conflict; SOC002010 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Anthropology/Cultural & Social; SOC039000 SOCIAL SCIENCE/Sociology of Religion
