Dream Travelers is a fine contribution to the current renewed interest in the study of dreams. The volume presents the research of a diverse group of distinguished anthropologists, all with experience in the rapidly changing societies of the Western Pacific.They show how these transformations are strikingly reflected in the dream life as well as the waking life of individuals.There are new data and new ideas here. They will prove influential in the broader study of dreams and consciousness. - Erika Bourguignon, Professor Emerita, Ohio State University
My lasting impression following reading this fine collection of anthropological essays is of the dream as an alternative mode of cognition - as an important means of apprehending the world and engaging with others. Based on original fieldwork, each essay contributes rich ethnographic data to reveal the interaction between the apparently private inner realm of dreams, and shared, cultural phantasy systems. Lived culture emerges from this dynamic interplay. For all those with a serious interest in dreams, this book a 'must'. Furthermore, if there still remain any social or cultural anthropologists who feel that dreaming is a topic better left to the psychoanalyst, or dismissed entirely, this important collection will surely convince them otherwise. - Michele Stephen, Associate Professor of History, La Trobe University, Australia
Returning to one of the foundational problems in anthropology, the authors of Dream Travelers explore the cultural significance of dreaming in a fascinating journey through Melanesia, aboriginal Australia and Indonesia. Powerfully evocative, the chapters are a pleasure to read in their own right while the collection as a whole propels our understanding of dreams in important new directions. Dream Travelers makes significant contributions to comparative ethnography, the anthropology of religion and the psychology of dreaming. - John Barker, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of British ColumbiaA fascinating work on dreams and religion in the Western Pacific. - Mary N. McDonald, Le Moyne College
