The Python Spirit and the Cross: Becoming Christians in a Highland Community of Papua New Guinea

This study explores the processes of Christianization among the Somaip, a linguistically divided but ritually united group of clans in the western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Based on ethnographic fieldwork from 1998 to 2000, it focuses on three major issues: (a) conversion motives, (b) the dynamics of indigenizing' Christianity, and (c) the negotiation of a new (Christian) identity. The analysis proceeds from an extensive reconstruction of pre-Christian concepts and ritual practices which are also situated in a wider regional context. Hans Reithofer is a researcher at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Goettingen (Germany) .