Rethinking "Mana"

Mana, Power and ‘Pawa’ in the Pacific and Beyond

“…(Firth 1940: 505) More verb-like than noun-like in many of its uses, the Tikopia term manu is in at least some contexts best translated as to 'be effective' or to 'be efficacious ' (499, 506). Keesing (1984) took Firth's critique further by showing that similar conclusions to the ones that Firth had reached about Tikopia (a Polynesian language) could be drawn for a wide range of other languages within the Oceanic group of the Austronesian family languages (of which the Polynesian are a sub-group, see Figure 10). Through a detailed survey of Oceanic languages, Keesing showed that although cognate terms for mana were widespread among them, these had a much wider range of meanings than had been allowed for by Codrington et al, and that, just as Firth had found for Tikopia, these tended to cluster more around a notion of efficaciousness of human agency in specific contexts rather than of generalised supernatural power or influence.…”

“…First, I briefly review the history of anthropological and comparativelinguistic understandings of mana, from Robert Codrington's boldly speculative account (1891), to Raymond Firth's (1940) much more cautious one, to Roger Keesing's (1984) argument concerning what he takes to be western misconstruals of traditional concepts of mana held by Pacific peoples speaking Oceanic Austronesian languages. I offer some caveats about that argument and update it by reviewing some more recent work by other scholars who have tried to link those words and concepts to others that are attested in Austronesian languages across a wider region than Oceania, and even to Papuan languages extending into the interior of Papua New Guinea (PNG).…”

Gerardus van der Leeuw. Et forstudie til en kognitiv revurdering af mana

“…Dette skyldes saerligt to forhold. For det første bliver den tidlige forskning angrebet for ikke at levere en retvisende oversaettelse af manas lokale betydning (Boyer 1990;Keesing 1984), og begrebet bliver på den baggrund et prominent offer i de grundlagsdiskussioner, der naturligt følger afkoloniseringen. Forskydningen i betydning som naturligt fulgte aendringen af begrebets status fra lokal, over emic, til etic kategori bliver nu set som et grundlaeggende problem for dets anvendelse som et universelt begreb for overnaturlig kraft.…”

The law of rahui in the Society Islands

“…This analysis represents a major departure from the standard 61 Petersen, 1999, p. 401. 62 Sahlins, 1958. interpretations popularised by Firth, 63 Sahlins, 64 Keesing, 65 and Shore 66 in Oceanian anthropology, according to which only higher chiefs could implement tapu through their mana. Rahui, like tapu and mana, appear much more localised in application and power source, but also tied to sociopolitical alliances and linkages for wider application.…”