Lethal speech: Daribi myth as symbolic obviation

In this account of the narrative traditions of the Daribi people of Chimbu Province in Papua, the author presents and interprets an impressive body of myths and moral tales. He draws on his knowledge of the language, social organization, religion, and folklore of the Daribi people to analyze the texts in search of a formal, underlying pattern. Emerging from his treatment is a general theory of myth based on what he calls symbolic obviation — a dialectical process by which symbols beget other symbols and myths other myths, sequentially, with the begetters dislocated at each stage.