Professor Joel Robbins

Biography

I am an anthropologist of religion, ethics, and cultural change whose research works to stimulate thinking about the role of values in anthropological theory. Regionally, my ethnographic fieldwork was among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea. My current and future fieldwork focuses on religious education in a range of higher education settings. This project will focus on the intellectual aspects of religious life, particularly among religious elites. I have a longstanding interest in developing the anthropological study of Christianity and have an interest in continuing the comparative study of Christianity from anthropological perspectives and in furthering the dialogue between anthropology and theology.

Research

I have broad interests in the anthropology of religion and anthropological theory. Much of my work to date has focused on working toward the development of the anthropological study of Christianity and on helping to construct theoretical models of radical cultural change. My primary fieldwork has been in Papua New Guinea among the Urapmin, a remote language group all of the members of which converted to charismatic Christianity in the late 1970s, and this despite never having been directly missionized by Westerners. The rapid and extensive changes in Urapmin culture and social life that followed their conversion—changes which included, for example, the abandonment of an elaborate traditional system of strict gender separation in almost all areas of life—set for me the question of how anthropology can construct theories that at once account for the highly structured nature of most of social life and at the same time its potential for radical transformation. Similarly, the intensity of Urapmin devotion to their new religion led me to work to theorize the relative absence of studies of Christianity in the anthropology of the past and to work with others to foster the developing anthropology of Christianity. I have also studied global charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity in comparative terms, and this is an area, along with the others I have just discussed, in which I have a continuing interest.

I also have a longstanding interest in the anthropology of values. As the anthropological study of ethics and morality have grown rapidly in recent years, I have come to focus on what the study of values can contribute in this area. More generally, I have been exploring the prospects for finding a central place for values in anthropological theorizing. At present, I am pursuing these linked interests by working on a project focused on what I have called “the anthropology of the good”—an anthropology focused on those things people strive to produce that would be attentive both to the ways values structure social life and the way people experience them as prompts for their emotions and desires. I have published a number of articles that take up issues related to the anthropology of values and I am currently working on a book focused on the anthropological study of values and the good.

I am also beginning to develop a new project focused on religious higher education. Vast numbers of people in the world who receive higher education do so in religious settings. We have some ethnographic studies focused on how knowledge is defined and taught in such settings, but in fact we know relatively little about the intellectual side of religion compared to its practical and emotional ones. We also know more about lay religious reasoning in many places than we do about elite versions. In my own research for this project, I plan to study Christian educational institutions, but I hope to secure funding to support others to study higher education in other religious traditions as well. My overall goal is to contribute to a comparative understanding of religious higher education and its place in the contemporary world against the backdrop of a wider understanding of the role of education and knowledge in shaping social processes more generally. At the same time, I have been part of a developing intellectual between anthropology and theology as disciplines both concerned with, among other things, the nature of human life.

Research interests

The anthropology of religion and ritual; the anthropology of Christianity; religious education; values; ethics; cultural change; material and verbal exchange; structuralism and semiotics; anthropology and theology.

Publications

For the full list of publications please see Joel Robbins' Publications

Books

2020 Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Reviews: L’Homme 237; Mission Studies; New Directions in the Anthropology of Christianity; On Knowing Humanity Journal 6(2); Journal of the American Academy of Religion; Horizons; Religion and Society (published with response); Choice; Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

Review Forums (several reviews published with response): Finnish Journal of Anthropology (two reviewers); History and Anthropology (seven reviewers).

2004 Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Moral Torment in a Papua New Guinea Society. University of California Press.

- Awarded the J.I. Staley Prize of the School of Advanced Research, 2011.

- Chinese translation in progress

- 25 published reviews: Am. Anthropologist 107(3); Anthropos 100(1); Anthro. Forum 15(2); Anth. of Religion Vol. 2 (In Chinese), Anth. Quarterly 77(3) (subject of review essay); Anthro. and Humanism 31(1); Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions (148); Aust. J. of Anth 17(3); Books and Culture (Jan/Feb 06); Christian Schol. Review 34(3); Comp. Stud. Soc. and Hist. (48(1); Contemp. Pacific 17(2); Contemp. Soc. 34(5); Curr. Anth. 46(5); J. Anth. Res. 61(2); J. Contemp. Relig. 21(2); J. Relig. Africa 35(1); Ethnos 70(4); Pac. Affairs 78(2); Paideuma; Pneuma 28(2); Rel. Stud. Rev. 31(1-2); Rev. in Anthropology (subject of review essay with Robbins and Wardlow 2005 and two other books); Soc. Anthro. 13(3); TLS (June 3, 2005).

Special Journal Issues and Edited Volumes

2022 Editor (with D. Henig and A. Strhan) of Where is the Good in the World: Ethical Life Between Social Theory and Philosophy. Oxford: Berghahn.

2021 Editor (with K. Furani) of Anthropology Within and Without the Secular Condition. Religion 51(4).

2017 Editor (with J. Sumiala) of Ritual Intimacy-Ritual Publicity: Engaging With Plurality. Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 41(4). (I contribute a co-authored introduction and single-authored article to this collection)

2014 Editor (with N. Haynes) of The Anthropology of Christianity: Unity, Diversity, New Directions. Special Issue of Current Anthropology 55 (Supplement 10). (I am lead editor of this issue and contribute a single-authored Introduction)

2014 Editor (with J. Siikala) of Dumont, Values, and Contemporary Cultural Change. Special Issue of Anthropological Theory 14(2). (I contribute a co-written introduction to this collection).

2010 Editor (with M. Engelke) of Global Christianity, Global Critique. Special Issue of South Atlantic Quarterly 109(4). (I contribute a co-edited introduction and single authored article to this collection).

2008 Editor (with A. Rumsey) of Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology and the Opacity of Other Minds. Special Section of Anthropological Quarterly 81(2): 407-494 (2008). (I contribute a co-authored introduction and a single authored article to this volume).

2005 Editor (with H. Wardlow) of The Making of Global and Local Modernities in Melanesia: Humiliation, Transformation and the Nature of Cultural Change. (I am primary editor of this volume and single author of its introduction. I also contribute a single-authored chapter.) Ashgate.

2003 Editor, The Anthropology of Christianity. Special Issue of Religion 33(3). (I contribute a single authored introduction and single authored article to this volume.)

2002 Editor (with D. Murray) of Reinventing “The Invention of Culture.” Special issue of Social Analysis 46(1). (I contribute a co-authored introduction and single-authored chapter to this volume.)

2001 Editor (with A. Strathern and P. Stewart) of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in Oceania. Special Issue of Journal of Ritual Studies 15(2). (I am the first editor of this volume and contribute a single-authored introduction and a single-authored chapter to it.)

1999 Editor (with D. Akin) of Money and Modernity: State and Local Currencies in Contemporary Melanesia. University of Pittsburgh Press. (I contribute a co-authored introduction and a single-authored chapter to this book.)

1997 Editor (with S. Bamford) of Fieldwork Revisited: Changing Contexts of Ethnographic Research in the Era of Globalization. Special Issue of Anthropology and Humanism 22(1). (I contribute a co-authored introduction and a single-authored article to this volume.)

Articles

2024 “Anthropology Bright and Dark: Relativism, Value Pluralism, and the Comparative Study of the Good” and “Values, Value Pluralism, and the Judgemental Turn: A Response.” Social Analysis 43-100 (Article published with six commentaries and my response.)

2024 “Afterword.” Special Section: Divine Presence: Muslim Ontologies, Anthropology, Transcendence. Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 14(1): 88-94.

2022 “From Reasons of State to Individual Interest: Morality, Power and the Political Category.” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 12(3): 701-716.

2021 “Introduction: Anthropology Within and Without the Secular Condition” (with K. Furani). Religion 51(4): 501-517.

2020 “On the Prospects for a Comparative Study of the Good: Beyond the Dark in Anthropological Relativism.” (In Chinese.) Academia Ethica 008: 45-64.

2019 “Why is it Useful to Compare Cultural Definitions of the Good?” Etnografia e ricerca qualitative 2: 219-223.

2019 On Knowing Faith: Theology, Everyday Religion, and Anthropological Theory (Rappaport Lecture). Religion and Society 10: 14-29.

2017 “The Presence of Luis Dumont: An Interview with Joel Robbins” (with L. Fernando Dias Duarte). Sociologia and Antropologia (Rio de Janeiro) 7(3): 647-679.

2017 “Keeping God’s Distance: Sacrifice, Possession, and the Problem of Religious Mediation.” American Ethnologist 44(3) : 464-475.

2017 “L'anthropologie entre l'Europe et le Pacifique: valeurs et perspectives pour une relation au-delà du relativisme" L'Homme 222: 131-154.

In English as “Anthropology Between Europe and the Pacific: Values and the Prospects for a Relationship Beyond Relativism.” Pacific Studies 41(1-2): 97-116 (2018).

2017 “Ritual Intimacy-Ritual Publicity: Revisiting Ritual Theory and Practice in Plural Societies” (with J. Sumiala). Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 41(4): 1-5.

2017 “Ritual Pluralism and Value Pluralism: On Why One Ritual is Never Enough.” Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 41(4): 6-13.

2017 “Can There Be Conversion Without Cultural Change?” Mission Studies 34 (1):29-52.

2016 “What is the Matter with Transcendence? On the Place of Religion in the New Anthropology of Ethics.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 22(4): 767-808. (Published with responses by M. Clarke, V. Das, B. Kapferer, M. Lambek, C. Scherz).

2016 “Is the Future Beyond Culture (Review Article).” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 22(3): 707-711.

2016 “Values” (with J. Sommerschuh). Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Pp. 1-12.

2015 “There is No Such Thing as the Good: The 2013 Meeting of the Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory” (with S. Venkatesan, V. Das, H. Al-Mohammad, and C. Stafford). Critique of Anthropology 35(4): 430-480. (I make contributions throughout; my prepared opening statement appears on pp. 440-445).

2015 “Onde no mundo estão os valores? Exemplaridade, Moralidade e Processo Social.” Sociologas 17(39): 164-196 (In Portuguese).

2015 “On Happiness, Values, and Time: The Long and the Short of It (Special Issue Afterword).” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 5(3): 215-233.

2015 “Dumont’s Hierarchical Dynamism: Christianity and Individualism Revisited.” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 5(1): 173-195.

2015 “Ritual, Value, and Example: On the Perfection of Cultural Representations.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 21 (S1): 18-29. (Special Issue: The Power of Example).

2014 “Pluralismo Religioso E Pluralismode Valores: Ritual E A Regi;açaoda Diversidade Intercultural.” Debates do NER 15(26): 15-41; “Resposta Aos Comentadores” (pp. 111-126). (Article published with eight commentaries and my response. English versions of the article, comments and response published by the journal online: http://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/debatesdoner/issue/current/showToc).

2014 “The Anthropology of Christianity: Unity, Diversity, New Directions: An Introduction to Supplement 10.” Current Anthropology 55 (Supplement 10): S157-S171.

2014 “How Do Religions End? Theorizing Religious Traditions from the Point of View of How They Disappear.” (Published with commentaries by A. Vilaça, S. Coleman, M. Nî Mhaonaigh, D. Seeman and my reply). Cambridge Anthropology 32(2): 2-15, 23-25.

2014 “Evangelical Conversion and the Transformation of the Self in Amazonia and Melanesia: Christianity and the Revival of Anthropological Comparison” (with B. Schieffelin and A. Vilaça). Comparative Studies in Society and History 56(3): 559-590.

2014 “Introduction - Hierarchy and Hybridity: Toward a Dumontian Approach to Contemporary Cultural Change” (with J. Siikala). Anthropological Theory. 14(2): 121-132.

2013 “Afterword: Let’s Keep it Awkward: Anthropology, Theology, and Otherness.” The Australian Journal of Anthropology 24 (3): 329-337.

2013 “On Kinship and Comparison, Intersubjectivity and Mutuality of Being (Comment on Sahlins, Marshall, 2013. What Kinship is – and Is Not. University of Chicago Press). Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 3(2): 309-316.

2013 “Beyond the Suffering Subject: Toward an Anthropology of the Good.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 19 (3): 447-462.

2013 “Monism, Pluralism and the Structure of Value Relations: A Dumontian Contribution to the Contemporary Study of Value.” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 3(1): 99-115.

2012 “On Becoming Ethical Subjects: Freedom, Constraint, and the Anthropology of Morality.” Anthropology of This Century 5. Web Journal, no pagination, 7456 words - http://aotcpress.com/articles/ethical-subjects-freedom-constraint-anthro...).

2012 “Transcendence and the Anthropology of Christianity: Language, Change, and Individualism (Edward Westermarck Memorial Lecture).” Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society, 37(2): 5-23.

2012 “Spirit Women, Church Women, and Passenger Women: Christianity, Gender, and Cultural Change in Melanesia.” Archives De Sciences Sociales Des Religions. 157: 113-133.

2011 “The Constitution of Mind: What’s in a Mind? Interiority and Boundedness.” Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 36(4): 15-17.

2011 “Transcendcia E Antropologia Do Cristianismo: Linuagem, Mudança E Individualismo.” Religiao e Sociedade, Rio de Janeiro. 31(1): 11-31.

2011 “Crypto-Religion and the Study of Cultural Mixtures: Anthropology, Value, and the Nature of Syncretism.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 79(2): 408-424.

2010 “Afterword: Ambivalent and Resistant Christians and the Anthropology of Christianity.” Asia-Pacific Forum 48: 71-95.

2010 “On Imagination and Creation: An Afterword.” Anthropological Forum 20(3): 305-315.

2010 “Introduction” (with M. Engelke). Global Christianity, Global Critique. Special Issue, South Atlantic Quarterly 109(4): 623-631.

2010 “Anthropology, Pentecostalism, and the New Paul: Conversion, Event, and Social Transformation.” South Atlantic Quarterly 109(4): 633-652.

2010 “On the Pleasures and Dangers of Culpability.” Critique of Anthropology. 30(1); 122-128.

2009 “Equality, Inequality, and Exchange” (contribution to a forum on John Liep’s book A Papuan Plutocracy: Ranked Exchange on Rossel Island. Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society 34(4): 71-80.

2009 “Pentecostal Networks and the Spirit of Globalization: On the Social Productivity of Ritual Forms.” Social Analysis 53(1): 55-66.

2009 “Value, Structure, and the Range of Possibilities: A Response to Zigon.” Ethnos 74(2): 277-285.

2008 “Culture, Value, and Anthropological Theory: An Interview with Joel Robbins” (with M. Ruckenstein). Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society. Vol. 33 (4): 72-83.

2008 “The Anthropology of Christianity.” (With J. Bialecki and N. Haynes). Religion Compass 2(6): 1139-1158.

2008 “Sobre Alteridade E O Sagrado Em Uma Época De Globalização. O ‘Trans’ Em ‘Transnational’ É O Mesmo ‘Trans’ De ‘Transcendente’?” Mana 14(1): 119-141 (Portuguese translation of “Is the Trans- in Transnational the Trans- in Transcendent” – listed under book chapters).

2008 “On Not Knowing Other Minds: Confession, Intention, and Linguistic Exchange in a Papua New Guinea Community.” Anthropological Quarterly 81(2): 421-429 (2008).

2008 “Introduction: Cultural and Linguistic Anthropology and the Opacity of Other Minds” (with A. Rumsey). Anthropological Quarterly 81(2): 407-420.

2007 “Afterword: Possessive Individualism and Cultural Change in the Western Pacific.” Anthropological Forum 17(3): 299-308.

2007 “Between Reproduction and Freedom: Morality, Value, and Radical Cultural Change.” Ethnos 72(3): 293-314.

2007 “Continuity Thinking and the Problem of Christian Culture: Belief, Time and the Anthropology of Christianity.” Current Anthropology 48(1): 5-38.

2006 “Anthropology and Theology: An Awkward Relationship?” Anthropological Quarterly 79(2): 285-294.

2006 “Humiliation and Transformation: Marshall Sahlins and the Study of Cultural Change in Melanesia.” Suomen Antropologi (Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society) 30(4):19-35 (This is an edited version of my Introduction to Robbins and Wardlow 2005, listed in the Book Chapters section.)

2004 “The Globalization of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity.” Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 117-143.

2003 “What is a Christian: Notes Toward an Anthropology of Christianity.” Religion 33(3): 191-199.

2003 “On the Paradoxes of Global Pentecostalism and the Perils of Continuity Thinking.” Religion 33(3): 221-231.

2003 “Given to Anger, Given to Shame: The Psychology of the Gift among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” Paideuma 49: 249-261.

2003 “Properties of Nature, Properties of Culture: Possession, Recognition, and the Substance of Politics in a Papua New Guinea Society.” Suomen Antropologi (Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society) 28(1): 9-28.

2002 “My Wife Can’t Break Off Part of Her Belief and Give It to Me: Apocalyptic Interrogations of Christian Individualism among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” Paideuma 48: 189-206.

2002 “On the Critical Uses of Difference: The Uninvited Guest and The Invention of Culture.” Social Analysis 46(1): 4-11. (This is an expanded version of “This Profound Differentiation of Mankind” listed under 2001 below).

2002 “Introduction: Reinventing The Invention of Culture” (with D. Murray). Social Analysis 46(1): 1-3.

2001 “God is Nothing but Talk: Modernity, Language and Prayer in a Papua New Guinea Society.” American Anthropologist 103(4). (Also published in Chinese and French).

2001 “Ritual Communication and Linguistic Ideology: A Reading and Partial Reformulation of Rappaport’s Theory of Ritual.” Current Anthropology 42(5): 589-612.

2001 “’This Profound Differentiation of Mankind’: On the Uninvited Guest and the Invention of Culture.” Suomen Antropologi (Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society) 26(1): 29-34.

2001 “Secrecy and the Sense of an Ending: Narrative, Time and Everyday Millenarianism in Papua New Guinea and in Christian Fundamentalism.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 43(3): 525-551.

2001 “Whatever Became of Revival? From Charismatic Movement to Charismatic Church in a Papua New Guinea Society.” The Journal of Ritual Studies 15(2): 79-90.

2001 “Introduction: Global religions, Pacific Island Transformations.” The Journal of Ritual Studies 15(2): 7-12.

1998 "Becoming Sinners: Christianity and Desire among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea." Ethnology 37(4): 299-316.

1998 "On Reading 'World News': Apocalyptic Narrative, Negative Nationalism, and Transnational Christianity in a Papua New Guinea Society." Social Analysis 42(2): 103-130.

1998 "Between Reproduction and Transformation: Ethnography and Modernity in Melanesia (Review Article)." Anthropological Quarterly 71(2): 89-98.

1997 "When Do You Think the World Will End? Globalization, Apocalypticism, and the Moral Perils of Fieldwork in 'Last New Guinea.'" Anthropology and Humanism 22(1): 6-30.

1997 "Introduction." (with S. Bamford). Anthropology and Humanism 22(1): 3-5.

1995 "Dispossessing the Spirits: Christian Transformations of Desire and Ecology among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea." Ethnology 34(3): 211-224.

1995 "Fieldwork Revisited: Changing Contexts of Ethnographic Research in the Era of Globalization - A Preliminary Statement." (with S. Bamford). Anthropology and Humanism, 20(2): 95-97.

1994 “Equality as a Value: Ideology in Dumont, Melanesia, and the West.” Social Analysis 36: 21-70.

Book Chapters

2024 “’On the Search for “A Serious Ethical Form of Individualism’: Bellah, Tillich, and the Anthropology of Christian Individualism.” In Challenging Modernity, ed. N. Bellah, R. Madsen, W. M. Sullivan, A. Swidler and S. M. Tipton. New York, Columbia University Press: 282-302.

2023 “Values” (with J. Sommerschuh). In Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Ethics, ed. J. Laidlaw. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 487-507.

2023 “Foreword.” In Anthropological Optimism: Engaging the Power of What Could Go Right, ed. A.J. Willow. New York: Routledge. Pp. xiii-xvii.

2022 “Moral Revolutions, Value Change and the Question of Moral Progress.” in New Perspectives on Moral Change, ed. C. Eriksen and N. Hämäläinen. Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 75-85.

2022 “Where is the Good in the World?” In Where is the Good in the World: Ethical Life Between Social Theory and Philosophy, ed. D. Henig, A Strhan, J. Robbins. Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 35-45.

2021 “When Did It Become Hard to Be Good? Axial Dynamics and the Problem of the Moral Self.” In Society and Morality in Eurasia: From Prehistory to the Present Day. Halle-Wittenberg: Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.

2021 “Concepts and Values, Anthropology and Judgment.” In Concepts and Persons (The Tanner Lectures on Human Values), ed. Michael Lambek. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Pp. 102-114.

2021 “Mental Opacity.” In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, J. Stanlaw, ed. John Wiley & Sons. Pp. 1-6 (online).

2020 “When Does a Sacrifice become ‘Just Meat’: A Sketch for a Theory of How Religions Stop Working.” In The Demise of Religion: How Religions End, Die, or Dissipate, M. Stausberg et. al., eds. London: Bloomsbury. Pp. 31-48.

2020 “Values and the Value of Secrecy: Barthian Reflections on Values and the Nature of Mountain Ok Social Process.” In It Happens Among People: Resonances and Extensions of the Work of Fredrik Barth. K. Wu and R. Weller, eds. Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 159-170.

2019 “Pentecostalism and Forms of Individualism.” In Going to Pentecost: An Experimental Approach to Studies in Pentecostalism. A. Eriksen, et. al., eds. Oxford: Berghahn. Pp. 187-192.

2019 “Afterword: Some Reflections on Rupture.” In Ruptures: Anthropologies of Discontinuity in Times of Turmoil. M. Holbraad et. al., eds. London: UCL Press. Pp. 218-231.

2018 “World Christianity and the Reorganization of Disciplines: On the Emerging Dialogue between Anthropology and Theology.” In Theologically Engaged Anthropology, D. Lemons, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 226-243.

2018 “Anthropological and Theological Responses to Theologically Engaged Anthropology” (with S. Coakley). In Theologically Engaged Anthropology, D. Lemons, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 355-375.

2018 “Afterword: On the Anthropology of Christianity, the Complexity of the Local, and the Study of Christian Congregational Music in Global Perspective.” In Making Congregational Music Local in Christian Communities Worldwide, M.M. Ingalls, M. Swijghuisen Reigerberg, and Z.C. Sherinian, eds. New York: Routledge. Pp. 262-274.

2018 “Where in the World are Values: Exemplarity, Morality, and Social Process.” In Recovering the Human Subject: Freedom, Creativity and Decision, J. Laidlaw et al, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 174-192. [A similar paper appears as “Where in the World are Values? Exemplarity and Moral Motivation.” In Moral Engines: Exploring the Ethical Drives in Human Life, C. Mattingly et. al., eds. New York: Berghahn. Pp. 155-173.]

2017 “In What Does Failure Succeed? Conceptions of Sin and the Role of Human Moral Vulnerability in Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity” (with L. Williams Green). In Straying From the Straight Path: How Senses of Failure Invigorate Lived Religion, D. Beekers and D. Kloos, eds. New York: Berghahn. Pp. 21-36.

2017 “Anthropological Perspectives on World Christianity.” In Relocating World Christianity: Interdisciplinary Studies in Universal and Local Expressions of the Christian Faith, J. Cabrita et al., eds. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 238-257.

2017 “Anthropology in the Mirror of Theology: Epistemology, Ontology, Ethics (an Afterword).” In On Knowing Humanity: Insights from Theology for Anthropology, E. Meneses and D. Bronkema, eds. London: Routledge. Pp. 222-240.

2016 “How Long is a Longue Durée? Structure, Duration, and the Cultural Analysis of Cultural Change. In A Practice of Anthropology: The Thought and Influence of Marshall Sahlins, A. Golub et al., eds. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press. Pp. 40-62.

2016 “Comments to Part 3: Christian Renewal and Change in Regional Development.” In Christianity, Conflict, and Renewal in Australia and the Pacific. F. Magowan and C. Schwarz, eds. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 207-214.

2015 “Engaged disbelief: problematics of detachment in Christianity and in the anthropology of Christianity.” In Detachment: Essays on the Limits of Relational Thinking. M. Candea et al., eds. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Pp. 115-129.

2015 “Afterword: The Anthropology of Global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism.” In The Anthropology of Global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism. S. Coleman and R. Hackett, eds. New York: New York University Press. Pp. 243-252.

2015 “Afterword: Reflections on Making Analysis.” In Qualitative Analysis in the Making, D. Kuzmanovic and A. Bandak, eds. New York: Routledge. Pp. 192-201.

2012 “Why is There No Political Theology among the Urapmin? On Diarchy, Sects as Big as Society, and the Diversity of Pentecostal Politics.” In Christian Politics in Oceania, M. Tomlinson and D. McDougall, eds. New York: Berghahn. Pp. 198-210.

2012 “Cultural Values.” In A Companion to Moral Anthropology, D. Fassin, ed. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Pp. 117-132.

2012 “Some Things You Say, Some Things You Dissimulate, and Some Things You Keep to Yourself: Linguistic, Material and Marital Exchange in the Construction of Melanesian Societies.” In The Scope of Anthropology: Maurice Godelier’s Work in Context, L. Dousset and S. Tcherkézoff, eds. New York: Berghahn. Pp. 25-45.

2012 “On Enchanting Science and Disenchanting Nature: Spiritual Warfare in North America and Papua New Guinea.” In Nature, Science, and Religion: Intersections Shaping Society and the Environment, C.M. Tucker, ed. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press. Pp. 45-64.

2011 “On Messianic Promise.” In Echoes of the Tambaran: Masculinity, History and the Subject in the Work of Donald F. Tuzin, D. Lipset and P. Roscoe, eds. Canberra: ANU E Press. Pp. 183-194.

2011 “The Obvious Aspects of Pentecostalism: Ritual and Pentecostal Globalization.” In Practicing the Faith: The Ritual Life of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christians, M. Lindhardt, ed. New York: Berghahn Books. Pp. 49-67.

2010 “If There is No Such Thing as Society, Is Ritual Still Special? On Using The Elementary Forms after Tarde.” In The Social after Gabriel Tarde: Debates and Assessments, M. Candea, ed. London: Routledge. Pp. 93-101.

2010 “Anthropology of Religion.” In Studying Global Pentecostalism: Theories and Methods, A. Anderson et. al., eds. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 156-178.

2010 “Recognition, Reciprocity and Justice: Melanesian Reflections on the Rights of Relationships.” In Mirrors of Justice: Law and Power in the Post-Cold War Era, K. Clark and M. Goodale, eds. New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 171-190.

2009 “Is the Trans- in Transnational the Trans- in Transcendent: On Otherness and Moral Transformation in the Age of Globalization.” In Transnational Transcendence: Essays on Religion and Globalization, T. Csordas, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press. Pp. 55-71.

2009 “History, Cosmology, and Gender: Christianity and Cultural Change among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” In Religious and Ritual Change: Cosmologies and Histories, P.J. Stewart and A. Strathern, eds. Durham: Carolina Academic Press. Pp. 109-132.

2009 “Afterword.” In Native Christians: Modes and Effects of Christianity among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, A. Vilaça and R.M. Wright, eds. Surrey: Ashgate. Pp. 229-238.

2009 “Conversion, Hierarchy, and Cultural Change: Value and Syncretism in the Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” In Hierarchy: Persistence and Transformation in Social Formations, K. Rio and O.H. Smedal, eds. New York: Berghahn Books. Pp. 65-88. (French and Spanish versions of this paper are forthcoming.)

2009 “Rethinking Gifts and Commodities: Reciprocity, Recognition, and the Morality of Exchange.” In Economy and Morality: Anthropological Approaches. K. Browne and L. Milgram, eds. Altamira. Pp. 43-58.

2008 “The Future is a Foreign Country: Time, Space and Hierarchy among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” In Beyond the Horizon: Essays on Myth, History, Travel and Society. C. Sather and T. Kaartinen, eds. Finnish Literature Society. Pp. 23-36.

2007 “Morality, Politics and the Melanesian Big Man: On ‘The Melanesian Manager’ and the Transformation of Political Anthropology.” In The Anthropology of Morality in Melanesia and Beyond, J. Barker, ed. Ashgate. Pp. 25-37.

2007 “You Can’t Talk Behind the Holy Spirit’s Back: Christianity and Changing Language Ideologies in a Papua New Guinea Society.” In Consequences of Contact: Language Ideologies and Sociocultural Transformations in Pacific Societies, M. Makihara and B. Schieffelin, eds. Oxford University Press. Pp. 125-139.

2006 “Properties of Nature, Properties of Culture: Ownership, Recognition and the Politics of Nature in a Papua New Guinea Society.” In Reimagining Political Ecology, A. Biersack and J. Greenberg, eds. Duke University Press. Pp. 171-191.

2006 “Pacific Islands Religious Communities.” In The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions, M. Juergensmeyer, ed. Oxford University Press. Pp. 587-594

2006 “Afterword: On Limits, Ruptures, Meaning and Meaninglessness.” In Christianity and the Limits of Meaning, M. Engelke and M. Tomlinson, eds. Oxford: Berghahn Books. Pp. 211-223.

2006 “On Giving Ground: Globalization, Religion, and Territorial Detachment in a Papua New Guinea Society.” In Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization. M. Kahler and B. Walter, eds. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 62-84.

2005 “Introduction – Humiliation and Transformation: Marshall Sahlins and the Study of Cultural Change in Melanesia.” In The Making of Global and Local Modernities in Melanesia: Humiliation, Transformation and the Nature of Cultural Change. J. Robbins and H. Wardlow, eds. Aldershot: Ashgate. Pp. 3-21.

2005 “The Humiliations of Sin: Christianity and the Modernization of the Subject among the Urapmin.” In The Making of Global and Local Modernities in Melanesia: Humiliation, Transformation and the Nature of Cultural Change. J. Robbins and H. Wardlow, eds. Aldershot: Ashgate. Pp. 43-56.

2004 “On the Critique in Cargo and the Cargo in Critique: Towards a Comparative Anthropology of Critical Practice.” In Cargo, Cult and Culture Critique, H. Jebens, ed. Honolulu: University of Hawaii press. Pp. 243-259.

2003 “Dreaming and the Defeat of Charisma: Disconnecting Dreams from Leadership among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” In Dream Travelers: Sleep Experiences and Culture in the Western Pacific, R. Lohmann, ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 19-41.

1999 "'This is Our Money:' Modernism, Regionalism, and Dual Currencies in Urapmin." In Money and Modernity: State and Local Currencies in Contemporary Melanesia. University of Pittsburgh Press. Pp. 82-102.

1999 "Melanesian Currencies: Agency, Identity, and Social Reproduction." (With D. Akin). In Money and Modernity: State and Local Currencies in Contemporary Melanesia. University of Pittsburgh Press. Pp.1-40. (French translation forthcoming 2006.)

1997 "666, or Why is the Millennium on the Skin? Morality, the State and the Epistemology of Apocalypticism among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea." In Millennial Markers, P. Stewart and A. Strathern, eds. Townsville: Centre for Pacific Studies, James Cook University. Pp. 35-58.

Translations and Reprints in Edited Books

(Articles and book chapters published only in a language other than English are listed under “Articles” or “Book Chapters” above)

2022 Chinese translation of “Moral Revolutions, Value Change and the Question of Moral Progress.” Academia Ethica, Vol. 13.

2020 Polish translation of “Why is it Useful to Compare Cultural Definitions of the Good?” Wszystko Co Najważniejsze (All That Matters) 18.

2019 “World Christianity and the Reorganization of Disciplines: On the Emerging Dialogue between Anthropology and Theology.” In Faith in African Lived Christianity. K. Lauterbach and M. Vähäkangas, eds. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 15-37. [slightly expanded version].

2016 “On Happiness, Values, and Time: The Long and the Short of It (Special Issue Afterword).” In Values of Happiness: Toward an Anthropology of Purpose in Life, I. Kavedzija and H. Walker, eds. Chicago: Hau Books. Pp. 293-315.

2016 “Dumont’s Hierarchical Dynamism: Revisiting Christianity and Individualism.” In Puissance et Impuissance de la Valeur. Barroud, C., et al Eds. Paris: CNRS Editions. Pp. 117-140.

2014 “Mezi reprodukcí a změnou: Morálka, hodnoty a radikální kulturní změna” Biograf 59. (Czech translation of “Between Reproduction and Freedom: Morality, Value, and Radical Cultural Change.”)

2014 “Deontology and Consequentialism,” abridged version of “On the Pleasures and Dangers of Culpability.” In Moral Anthropology: A Critical Reader, D. Fassin and S. Lézé, eds. New York: Routledge. Pp. 118-123. (Also published in French in 2013 in La Question Morale, Presses Universitaires de France. Pp. 183-192).

2012 “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” In Globalization and Culture, Steger, M.B., ed. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

2010 “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” In Globalization and Culture, P. James, ed. London: Sage.

2010 “Is the Trans- in Transnational the Trans- in Transcendent: On Otherness and Moral Transformation in the Age of Globalization.” In Religion and Globalization (Critical Concepts in Social Studies), V. Altglas, Ed. London: Routledge. Chapter 6.

2010 “On the Paradoxes of Global Pentecostalism and the Perils of Continuity Thinking.” In Religion and Globalization (Critical Concepts in Social Studies), V. Altglas, Ed. London: Routledge. Chapter 28.

2010 “Pentecostal Networks and the Spirit of Globalization: On the Social Productivity of Ritual Forms.” In Contemporary Religiosities: Emergent Socialities and the Post-Nation-State, B. Kapferer et al, Eds. New York: Berghahn. Pp. 55-66.

2010 “El Pensamiento de la Continuidad y el Problema de la Cultura Cristiana: Creencia, Temporalidad y la Antropologia del Cristianismo.” Apuntes de Investigación del CECYP. 18: 111-144. (Spanish Translation of “Continuity Thinking and the Problem of Christian Culture.”)

2010 “Conversion, hiérarchie et changement culturel: valeur et syncrétisme dans le cadre l’expansion mondiale du chrisianisme pentecotiste et charismatique.” In Les Dynamiquies Religieuses dans le Pacifique/Religious Dynamics in the Pacific, F. Douaire-Marsaudon and G. Weichart, eds. Pacific Credo Publications. Pp. 235-262. (French Translation of “Conversion, Hierarchy, and Cultural Change).

2010 “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” Anthropology of Religion (Vol. 2). China: Social Sciences Academic Press. Pp. 351-387. (In Chinese).

2010 “History, Cosmology, and Gender: Christianity and Cultural Change among the Urapmin of Papua New Guinea.” In Religious and Ritual Change: Cosmologies and Histories, P.J. Stewart and A. Strathern, and Chung-rong Yeh, eds. Taipei: Linking Books. Pp. 157-186. (In Chinese).

2010 “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity.” In Anthropology of Religion: Critical Concepts, P. Stevens Jr., ed. Routledge. Vol. IV, pp. 253-281.

2010 “Ritual Communication and Linguistic Ideology: A Reading and Partial Reformulation of Rappaport’s Theory of Ritual.” In Ritual, P. J. Stewart and A. Strathern, eds. Farnham: Ashgate.

2009 “Morality, Value and Radical Cultural Change.” In The Anthropology of Moralities, M. Heintz, ed. New York: Berghahn Books. Pp. 62-80. (This is a version of the article published in 2007 as “Between Reproduction and Freedom: Morality, Value, and Radical Cultural Change.”)

2009 “Dieu N’Est Que Parole: Modernité, Langage et Pirere dans une Societé de Papouasie-Nouvelle Guinée.” In Anthropologie du Christianisme en Ocánie, Y. Fer and G. Malogne-Fer, eds. L’Harmattan. 169-189. (French translation of edited version of “God is Nothing But Talk.”)

2009 “God is Nothing But Talk: Modernity, Language and Prayer in a Papua New Guinea Society.” In Sea of Islands: Oceanic Studies in Anthropology, Y. Tung, ed. Taipei: Commercial Press. (In Chinese).

2006 “Introduction Aux Monnaies Melanésiennes.” (with D. Akin). In À L’épreuve du Capitalisme: Dynamiques Économiques dans le Pacficque. D. Demmer and M. Salaün, eds. L’Harmattan. Pp. 31-53. (French translation of edited version of “Melanesian Currencies.”)

Published Comments, Responses, and Posts on Edited Websites

2023 Comment on G. Sprenger “Expectations of the Gift: Toward a Future-Oriented Taxonomy of Transactions.” Social Analysis 67(1): 101-104.

2022 “Response” (to review forum on Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life). History and Anthropology 33(4): 540-545.

2022 “Response” (to review forum on Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life). Suomen Antropologi (Finnish Journal of Anthropology) 46(3): 101-106.

2021 “Response” (to review of Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life). Religion and Society 12: 227-229.

2020 Comment on R. Ning and D. Palmer, “Ethics of the Heart: Moral Breakdown and the Aporia of Chinese Volunteers.” Current Anthropology 61(4): 409-410.

2017 (with A. Pickles) “Trump Wins by Accelerating Time – Fight Back by Slowing Down.” Published on The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/trump-wins-by-accelerating-time-fight-back-by-slowing-down-72455; Republished on The New Statesman website, http://www.newstatesman.com/world/2017/02/donald-trump-wins-accelerating....

2017 “The Mysterious Power of Arrogance.” Published on Sapiens (sponsored by Wenner-Gren). https://www.sapiens.org/culture/trump-arrogance-papua-new-guinea/; republished on the University of Colorado Press Blog, http://upcolorado.com/about-us/blog/item/3173-the-mysterious-power-of-arrogance; edited version published by Aeon, https://aeon.co/ideas/how-arrogance-can-make-even-an-obnoxious-person-po....

2014 “Sad Stories of the Lives of Things: A Comment on Chris Gregory’s ‘On Religiosity and Commercial Life.” Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 4(3): 69-72.

2014 Comment on E. Meneses et. al., “Engaging the Religiously Committed Other.” Current Anthropology 55(1): 98-99.

2011 Comment on R. Marshall’s Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria as part of “Author meet Critics” section. Religion and Society 2: 143-145.

2010 “Melanesia, Christianity, and Cultural Change: A comment on Mosko’s ‘Partible Penitents.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16(2): 241-243.

2010 Invited Post, “Global Christianity, Global Critique.” (with M. Engelke). Appears on the SSRC website “The Immanent Frame: Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere.” http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/10/21/global-christianity/

2010 Invited Contribution, “Working on Individualism” – a discussion of C. Bender’s book The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination. Appears on the SSRC website “The Immanent Frame: Secularism, Religion, and the Public Sphere.” Permanent URL: http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/07/06/working-on-individualism/.

2007 Invited Comment, “Causality, Ethics, and the Near Future.” Contribution to AE Forum “Futures We Envision.” American Ethnologist 34(3): 433-436.

2006 Invited Comment on T. Lurhmann’s “Learning Religion at the Vineyard: Prayer, Discernment and Participation in the Divine.” Religion and Culture Web Forum of the Martin Marty Center, University of Chicago.

2002 Comment on Special Issue “Repertoires of Timekeeping in Anthropology.” Current Anthropology 43 (Supplement): 128-130.

2000 Comment on Englund and Leach, “Ethnography and the Meta-Narratives of Modernity.” Current Anthropology 41(2):242-243.