Misconstruction and Problems in Communication

Abstract

Anthropological literature is rich in descriptions and analyses of cultural revitalization movements. On the whole, however, we lack studies of situations and occurrences that contain the necessary—but sometimes not sufficient—conditions for these movements. The events that preceded and accompanied the solar eclipse of 1962 in New Guinea produced the preconditions for a movement of cultural revitalization. This case shows the kind of misinterpretation and misrepresentation that has frequently occurred where linguistic and cultural barriers compound administrative problems. It suggests a field for research—for instance, to uncover millenarian patterns in mythical traditions—in which anthropologists and folklorists can cooperate.