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Bruce Knauft

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description Bruce Knauft Overview

Bruce Knauft is an American anthropologist known for long-term ethnographic research among the Gebusi of Papua New Guinea. His work examines violence, gender, kinship, ritual, sexuality, exchange, and the social effects of contact with wider institutions and modernity. Books such as Good Company and Violence and The Gebusi: Lives Transformed in a Rainforest World combine detailed accounts of Gebusi life with analysis of cultural change over time.

help Bruce Knauft FAQ

Who are the Gebusi studied by Bruce Knauft?

The Gebusi are a people of the lowland rainforest in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. Bruce Knauft's long-term ethnography examines their kinship, ritual, gender, sexuality, exchange, violence, and encounters with wider institutions.

What is Good Company and Violence about?

Bruce Knauft's Good Company and Violence: Sorcery and Social Action in a Lowland New Guinea Society examines the contrast between everyday sociability and episodes of conflict linked to sorcery accusations. The book uses Gebusi life to analyze how cooperation and violence can exist within the same community.

How did outside contact change Gebusi society?

Knauft describes changes associated with Christian churches, community schools, government officials, and growing interest in outside goods and institutions. His later work follows how Gebusi people negotiated these changes rather than treating modernization as a simple replacement of local culture.

Did Bruce Knauft study only violence among the Gebusi?

No, violence is one part of a broader ethnography that also covers gender, sexuality, exchange, ritual, kinship, and everyday friendship. The phrase good company refers to the Gebusi emphasis on sociability, humor, and communal life.

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