Inside the cult : religious innovation and transmission in Papua New Guinea

The millenarian cult known as the Pomio Kivung, in Papua New Guinea, looks forward to the establishment of a period of supernatural bliss, heralded by the return of their ancestors bearing `cargo'. The author of this book, Harvey Whitehouse, was taken for a reincarnated ancestor, and was able to observe the dynamics of the cult from within. Drawing on this uniquely detailed study, Dr Whitehouse develops an original theory of `modes of religiosity' linking styles of codification and cultural transmission to the political scale, structure, and ethos of religious communities.