"When Do You Think the World Will End?": Globalization, Apocalypticism, and the Moral Perils of Fieldwork in "Last New Guinea"
1997; Wiley; Volume: 22; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1525/ahu.1997.22.1.6
ISSN1559-9167
Autores Tópico(s)Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration
ResumoAt the heart of this article is the claim that the changes in the world that anthropologists seek to capture with terms like globalization and transnationalism are transforming the ethical situation confronting the fieldworker. As people aspire to increase their participation in the emerging global culture, they will look to the anthropologists who live amongst them, themselves participants in that global culture, to help them achieve this goal. The Urapmin of Papua New Guinea pin their hopes for greater interaction with the global culture on the eschatological promises made by the intensely millenarian brand of Christianity to which they subscribe. Theirs is a globalizing apocalypticism in which heaven is a place where everyone participates fully in what the Urapmin imagine is Western culture. Throughout my time in Urapmin, people sought to compel me to use the knowledge of the timing of the Second Coming they were sure I possessed on the basis of my Western identity, to help them plan for the future. The Urapmin hoped, in short, that I would tell them if Jesus was about to return. This article describes this situation and discusses the various ways in which I tried to respond in an ethical fashion to the Urapmin's claims that it was my responsibility to use my knowledge of global culture to help them prepare for their millennial destiny.
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