Research Catalog

Title

The culture of coincidence : accident and absolute liability in Huli. / Laurence Goldman.

Author

Goldman, Laurence.

Publication

Oxford [England] ; New York : Clarendon Press, 1993.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xv, 443 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

In this innovative study, Laurence Goldman examines the ground between law, linguistics, and anthropology to provide the first full-length ethnography on the grammar and pragmatics of the rarely acknowledged or researched topic of accident. He challenges two long-standing preconceptions about tribal society: that there is absolute liability for deaths and that indigenous theories of misfortune lack concepts of pure accident or coincidence. Utilizing transcript case data from the Huli people of Papua New Guinea, Dr Goldman explores the linguistic encoding of intentionality, causality, responsibility, and control to show how actors dispute in volitional (murder) or non-volitional (coincidence) idioms. He examines causativization, case marking, adverbs, why-questions, and verb choice to reveal how intentions, and not just consequences, are an inevitable focus of all conflict talk. He also examines the notion of 'state of mind' in terms of Huli ideas of desire, motive, purpose, and reason. Dr Goldman concludes that, with regard to the concept of accident, Western and non-Western juristic ideologies exhibit startling similarities; his study has important implications for the way we describe the world views of other cultures.

Series Statement

Oxford studies in social and cultural anthropology

Uniform Title

Oxford studies in social and cultural anthropology.

Subject

• Huli (Papua New Guinean people) > Legal status, laws, etc
• Huli (Papua New Guinean people) > Social conditions
• Philosophy, Huli
• Accidents (Philosophy)
• Accident law > Papua New Guinea > Language
• Law and anthropology
• Language and culture > Papua New Guinea

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction: A Plea for Accident -- 1. Accident and Absolute Liability in Anthropology -- 2. Talking With and Through Accident -- 3. Questions of Intent and the Intent of Questions -- 4. Structuring Volitional and Non-Volitional Models: Synergy and Ideology -- 5. Fate and Fortuity: Perspectives on 'Mind' and 'Person'.

ISBN

019827873X

LCCN

^^^92011087^

OCLC

• 25788476
• SCSB-11272482

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library