The python spirit and the cross

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. It is only against this richly painted background of the ancestral religion that one can appreciate the distinctive vigour of current Somaip Christianity as it has been shaped by the creative blending of two religious traditions and the tensions and resonances perceived between them.