The Severed Snake: Matrilineages, Making Place, and a Melanesian Christianity in Southeast Solomon Islands

Record summary

Michael W. Scott’s ethnography examines Arosi social life, Christianity, ancestral power, and local ideas about place and personhood on Makira. It may matter for comparison because Christian revelation is interpreted through pre-existing Melanesian categories of spirits, landscape, kinship, and sacred efficacy rather than treated as an isolated occult report. The book is a scholarly account of religious interpretation, not evidence for supernatural intervention. Details of particular visions, healing claims, and local terminology should be checked against the ethnographic chapters and cited field materials.