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The Sorrow of the Lonely and the Burning of the Dancers
This classic ethnography, now in second edition, describes the traditional way of life of the Kaluli, a tropical forest people of Papua New Guinea. The book takes as its focus the nostalgic and violent Gisaro ceremony, one of the most remarkable performances in the anthropological literature. Tracking the major symbolic and emotional themes of the ceremony to their sources in everyday Kaluli life, Schieffelin shows how the central values and passions of Kaluli experience are governed by the basic forms of social reciprocity. However, Gisaro also reveals that social reciprocity is not limited to the dynamics of transaction, obligation, and alliance. It emerges, rather, as a mode of symbolic action and performative form, embodying a cultural scenario which shapes Kaluli emotional experience and moral sensibility and permeates their understanding of the human condition.
270 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 21, 2012
Observing Kaluli culture, Schieffelin truly penetrated into the social process of a Papua New Guinea people. By observing and interpreting Gisaro, Schieffelin is able to connect the reader with the event, where the culture is performed in order to mourn the death, the past, the land and compensate their loss by burning of the dancers on the one hand and reciprocate the debts on the other.
It is a must read for cultural ethnography purposes and in order to better understand your own culture as well...
It is a must read for cultural ethnography purposes and in order to better understand your own culture as well...
February 12, 2008
This is an ethnographic work on two tribes in Papua New Guinea where I did Doctoral fieldwork in Anthropology. It gets my vote for best ethnographic title ever, not only poetic but also very descriptive of what this study is about. (BTW, my vote for worst title of an ethnography--also from New Guinea--is "Of Your Own Pigs You May Not Eat.")
September 19, 2025
Read this years ago in an anthropology class and have never forgotten it. I still have the book. It's not just an anthropological look at the Kaluli people; it captures and gives to the reader the deep emotions one of their prime rituals is meant to evoke. A book not just about one culture, but about navigating human experience.
January 1, 2022
This ethnography is really profound, but certainly not an easy read for a day at the beach. I like these kinds of studies because they open up new ways to look at things, and lay bare the elements of society, our own and others, the way a desert landscape reveals the processes of geology.
Here the author's focus is on reciprocity, central to the Kaluli way of life. Though we don't often see it this way, an economic system is inevitably steeped in cultural meaning. And it says so much about human interdependence. I have to say I didn't buy the whole importance of the author's "opposition scenario." These fussy theories often tell us more about the anthropologist than the culture studied.
There are also shocking revelations that will stick with me. The Kaluli interpret every death as a murder carried out through witchcraft by a known person. The dying person has a power of vengeance that's really scary: Sometimes they will reveal the murderer's identity before dying, and their community of relatives and friends will promptly and brutally go kill that person. It appears that the government had worked to put an end to this system of justice in the 1960's, with mixed results.
The title refers to the ritual ceremony and performance called Gisaro. For me this goes to the subjects I have explored my whole adult life: the aesthetics and structures of musical and linguistic performance. Gisaro bears some resemblance to our own medicine show traditions, but if the performance is successful there comes a point when the "audience" obliterates the proscenium arch, violently attacking the performers in return for the great suffering the performance has caused them.
In economic terms, Gisaro turns our expectations upside down: The visiting performers pay the "audience" compensation for their grief, thus the relevance of reciprocity. Gisaro fulfills a cultural function, establishing bonds between neighboring longhouses and communicating and recounting their cultural history.
Here the author's focus is on reciprocity, central to the Kaluli way of life. Though we don't often see it this way, an economic system is inevitably steeped in cultural meaning. And it says so much about human interdependence. I have to say I didn't buy the whole importance of the author's "opposition scenario." These fussy theories often tell us more about the anthropologist than the culture studied.
There are also shocking revelations that will stick with me. The Kaluli interpret every death as a murder carried out through witchcraft by a known person. The dying person has a power of vengeance that's really scary: Sometimes they will reveal the murderer's identity before dying, and their community of relatives and friends will promptly and brutally go kill that person. It appears that the government had worked to put an end to this system of justice in the 1960's, with mixed results.
The title refers to the ritual ceremony and performance called Gisaro. For me this goes to the subjects I have explored my whole adult life: the aesthetics and structures of musical and linguistic performance. Gisaro bears some resemblance to our own medicine show traditions, but if the performance is successful there comes a point when the "audience" obliterates the proscenium arch, violently attacking the performers in return for the great suffering the performance has caused them.
In economic terms, Gisaro turns our expectations upside down: The visiting performers pay the "audience" compensation for their grief, thus the relevance of reciprocity. Gisaro fulfills a cultural function, establishing bonds between neighboring longhouses and communicating and recounting their cultural history.
December 7, 2010
I read this years ago in an anthro course, but I thought it was incredibly interesting. About social reciprocity and its reflection on a society's understanding of the human condition.
February 15, 2023
Top study of ritual and society
“This book is a cultural ethnography. The discussion focuses on the significance of a single ceremony known as Gisaro, which is performed by the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea.” The author uses “the Gisaro as a lens through which to view some of the fundamental issues of Kaluli life and society.” (p.1)
Starting from Clifford Geertz’ seminal essay on the Balinese cockfight, I have been long interested in such subjects—how in most cultures there are various dramatic rituals that tell the members of that culture some important facts about the world and themselves. Hindu weddings, worldwide soccer matches, Easter pageants, buzkashi, pilgrimages—the list is endless. A fictional example can be found in “The Greek Passion” by Nikos Kazantzakis. People often call these events “social dramas”. Through their drama, fascinating to members of the culture, they convey meaning and values to both participants and observers. In this Gisaro ceremony performed by a very remote people in the mountains of Papua New Guinea elaborately costumed dancers sing sad songs that make certain listeners cry. In return they take brands from a fire and burn the shoulders of the dancers. Later compensation would be paid by the performers for bringing sadness to the watchers. The Gisaro was usually performed on occasions of social reciprocity—at wedding when bridewealth was exchanged; at a time when there has been a good harvest and people are invited to share, when pigs are distributed because of social obligations, when people are worried about the unknown future. There was no special season for Gisaro, it could be done at any time people thought it appropriate. The author found the ceremony dramatic and described the people as deeply moved in their grief at remembering certain past events. It also expressed the opposition between groups, but it was at the same time, not usual for one group to take revenge through the Gisaro.
The main part of the book describes Kaluli society in detail. They saw themselves reflected in the land where they lived. Their metaphors concerned themselves and nature, always with the theme of reciprocity. There is a lot of material on how they handle social relations or establish connections with others. They live in groups of houses widely scattered in the forest and their connection to others can constantly shift according to tasks and events, not solely on the basis of blood ties. We find a difficult and rather useless chapter on kinship (de rigueur for anthropologists, but not necessary for understanding and liking this book) and a far more interesting one on the Kaluli perceptions of an unseen world and beliefs about death. The Kaluli were quick to anger. Disagreements led to splits throughout the small society. “The process of forming and resolving oppositions is more than a mechanism for the resolution of disputes. It’s the major mode of forward social motion in Kaluli society.” (p.114) It was their way of healing, necessary in such a small society. I mean, if you had a serious disagreement with someone, you couldn’t avoid them, you couldn’t move to another part of town or out-of-state. You remained and solved the problem or suffered.
Reciprocity was the major theme in Kaluli life, either in a good way—giving food and help to each other, or in another way—striking back at anyone who crossed you, or even against death. Kaluli did not recognize accidents as accidental or death as inevitable. They attributed someone’s death IN EVERY CASE, to the machinations of another person who had to be found and punished.
The last section of the book describes the Gisaro in great detail. He saw the Gisaro as a way to express violent and antagonistic feelings between two groups whose members aren’t necessarily linked by blood ties, but are more temporary and utilitarian. It also expressed fears about life and the world. He struggles to make a strong conclusion. “The antagonism evoked in the ceremony may indeed parallel, and perhaps dramatize, those concrete social tensions that do underlie the occasion, but it is not primarily founded on them.” (p.202) In the Gisaro, people confronted their own sorrows more than outward antagonisms. It was thus an extremely interesting example of a social drama that expressed inner feeling as well as outward antagonisms and worries.
I didn’t find the book hard to follow except for the kinship chapter. There are a number of Kaluli terms used, but not too excessively. I thought it was an excellent book for students of anthropology though not probably first year ones. I used it in class for a number of years.
“This book is a cultural ethnography. The discussion focuses on the significance of a single ceremony known as Gisaro, which is performed by the Kaluli people of Papua New Guinea.” The author uses “the Gisaro as a lens through which to view some of the fundamental issues of Kaluli life and society.” (p.1)
Starting from Clifford Geertz’ seminal essay on the Balinese cockfight, I have been long interested in such subjects—how in most cultures there are various dramatic rituals that tell the members of that culture some important facts about the world and themselves. Hindu weddings, worldwide soccer matches, Easter pageants, buzkashi, pilgrimages—the list is endless. A fictional example can be found in “The Greek Passion” by Nikos Kazantzakis. People often call these events “social dramas”. Through their drama, fascinating to members of the culture, they convey meaning and values to both participants and observers. In this Gisaro ceremony performed by a very remote people in the mountains of Papua New Guinea elaborately costumed dancers sing sad songs that make certain listeners cry. In return they take brands from a fire and burn the shoulders of the dancers. Later compensation would be paid by the performers for bringing sadness to the watchers. The Gisaro was usually performed on occasions of social reciprocity—at wedding when bridewealth was exchanged; at a time when there has been a good harvest and people are invited to share, when pigs are distributed because of social obligations, when people are worried about the unknown future. There was no special season for Gisaro, it could be done at any time people thought it appropriate. The author found the ceremony dramatic and described the people as deeply moved in their grief at remembering certain past events. It also expressed the opposition between groups, but it was at the same time, not usual for one group to take revenge through the Gisaro.
The main part of the book describes Kaluli society in detail. They saw themselves reflected in the land where they lived. Their metaphors concerned themselves and nature, always with the theme of reciprocity. There is a lot of material on how they handle social relations or establish connections with others. They live in groups of houses widely scattered in the forest and their connection to others can constantly shift according to tasks and events, not solely on the basis of blood ties. We find a difficult and rather useless chapter on kinship (de rigueur for anthropologists, but not necessary for understanding and liking this book) and a far more interesting one on the Kaluli perceptions of an unseen world and beliefs about death. The Kaluli were quick to anger. Disagreements led to splits throughout the small society. “The process of forming and resolving oppositions is more than a mechanism for the resolution of disputes. It’s the major mode of forward social motion in Kaluli society.” (p.114) It was their way of healing, necessary in such a small society. I mean, if you had a serious disagreement with someone, you couldn’t avoid them, you couldn’t move to another part of town or out-of-state. You remained and solved the problem or suffered.
Reciprocity was the major theme in Kaluli life, either in a good way—giving food and help to each other, or in another way—striking back at anyone who crossed you, or even against death. Kaluli did not recognize accidents as accidental or death as inevitable. They attributed someone’s death IN EVERY CASE, to the machinations of another person who had to be found and punished.
The last section of the book describes the Gisaro in great detail. He saw the Gisaro as a way to express violent and antagonistic feelings between two groups whose members aren’t necessarily linked by blood ties, but are more temporary and utilitarian. It also expressed fears about life and the world. He struggles to make a strong conclusion. “The antagonism evoked in the ceremony may indeed parallel, and perhaps dramatize, those concrete social tensions that do underlie the occasion, but it is not primarily founded on them.” (p.202) In the Gisaro, people confronted their own sorrows more than outward antagonisms. It was thus an extremely interesting example of a social drama that expressed inner feeling as well as outward antagonisms and worries.
I didn’t find the book hard to follow except for the kinship chapter. There are a number of Kaluli terms used, but not too excessively. I thought it was an excellent book for students of anthropology though not probably first year ones. I used it in class for a number of years.
October 26, 2017
So good that I can almost excuse the lack of female perspectives (which Schieffelin after all does apologise for in the introduction to the second edition). One of the best ethnographies that I've read so far!
March 12, 2019
Read this for my cultural anthropology class. It was interesting I guess, but would not have read it if was not assigned. Definitely had some interesting aspects and information- and reading about different cultures and the reasoning behind their doings is interesting.
May 11, 2012
Well-written, detailed, generally insightful. I would be interested to read more like this in the ethnographic genre.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews