Dream Travelers Sleep Experiences and Culture in the Western Pacific

In dreams, part of the self seems to wander off to undertake both mundane tasks and marvelous adventures. Anthropologists have found that many peoples take this experience of dreaming at face value, assuming that their spirits literally leave the body to travel, meet other spirits, and acquire valuable knowledge--with dramatic consequences for relationships, social organization, and religions. This book is about Melanesian, Aboriginal Australian, and Indonesian peoples who hold this assumption. Several leading anthropologists contribute theoretically and ethnographically rich chapters showing that attention to these peoples' dream lives deeply enhances our understanding of their cultures and waking lives as well.

Roger Ivar Lohmann is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Trent University, Canada.