Island Melanesian ontologies: An anthropological approach on Lavongai (Papua New Guinea)

This paper aims to shed new light on the ways in which the coastal inhabitants of Lavongai Island (Papua New Guinea) conceive of and behave towards the beings that inhabit their environment. More generally, it aims to contribute towards a comparative model of ontologies: the ways in which people think about human an non-human beings and about the differences or commonalities between them. In coastal Lavongai, people are in constant interaction with fish, birds, and numerous ‘invisible beings’ such as ancestor spirits. The social organisation distinguishes several exogamous matriclans that are associated with birds, in a configuration reminiscent of ‘totemism’. This research questions the Lavongai people’s conceptions of properties of these various beings, and in particular the way in which these conceptions intersect with the clan-based organisation, in dialogue with the work of Descola (2013).