Fire on the Island: Fear, Hope and a Christian Revival in Vanuatu

by Tom Bratrud

Overview

In 2014, the island of Ahamb in Vanuatu became the scene of a startling Christian revival movement led by thirty children with ‘spiritual vision’. However, it ended dramatically when two men believed to be sorcerers and responsible for much of the society’s problems were hung by persons fearing for the island’s future security. Based on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork on Ahamb between 2010 and 2017, this book investigates how upheavals like the Ahamb revival can emerge to address and sometimes resolve social problems, but also carry risks of exacerbating the same problems they arise to address.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781800734654
Publisher:	Berghahn Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	04/08/2022
Series:	ASAO Studies in Pacific Anthropology , #13
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	276
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Tom Bratrud is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo. He has conducted research in Vanuatu for over ten years and published articles on religion, politics and social life in various journals, including Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Ethnos.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Notes on Text

Introduction: Fear, Hope and Social Movements

Chapter 1. Life and Death
Chapter 2. Love and Land
Chapter 3. The Revival Begins
Chapter 4. Gender and Integrity
Chapter 5. Spiritual War
Chapter 6. Crises and Reconciliations
Chapter 7. Hope, Blame and New Possibility

Conclusion

Appendix
Glossary
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

“Clearly written, the book reads easily and offers an accessible case study that students and scholars of the Pacific will find useful and informative. It adds to a growing literature on contemporary Melanesian Christianities and older anthropological concerns with social movements everywhere.” • Oceania

“Students and scholars of the Pacific will appreciate this clearly written monograph. It adds to a growing literature on contemporary Christianities, social movements, personhood, and sorcery in postcolonial communities. Bratrud frames the story as one of an anxious balance between people’s hopes and fears. What drives people to desire and animate change in their lives?” • Lamont Lindstrom, University of Tulsa

“It is an amazing story. It is a remarkable book. There is nothing like it out there.” • Tanya Luhrmann, Stanford University

From the Publisher