Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
I am a sociocultural anthropologist who studies the relationship between language, politics, and religious ritual. At the heart of my work is the question of how people organise themselves to communicate with 'extrahuman' figures (including God, ancestors, and spirits) and what social effects such ritual communication has. After completing my PhD in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2002, I have taught at Bowdoin College, Monash University, the University of Oslo, and the ANU (since 2012).
Research interests
Oceania, Fiji, Samoa, Australia, language, culture, religion, ritual, theology, Christianity, Spiritualism
Researcher's projects
Australian Research Council Discovery Project, #DP170100563
'Social Engagement in Spiritualism'
2017-2019
Co-investigator, A/Prof Andrew Singleton, Deakin University
Project Description:
This is a unique, three-year investigation of the sociological, anthropological, and historical dimensions of Spiritualism in Australia, a small but highly influential religious movement. Ideas about the afterlife that Spiritualism introduced to Australia in the 19th century have shaped many citizens’ beliefs that individual personality survives death in a family-centered spirit realm.
Sociologically, the project aims to discover how Spiritualism articulates with the wider Australian religious context. Anthropologically, it aims to examine ritual forms in which Spiritualists attempt to speak with the dead. Taken together, the researchers plan to innovatively map the production and effect of belief on family, civic participation and ethics.
Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, #FT110100524
'Divine Power in Indigenous Christianity: Translation, Theology, and Pacific Politics'
2012-2016
Project Description:
This project examines the theological basis of political action in Oceania in innovative and distinctive ways. It focuses on missionary activities throughout the region and theological education in New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji. It analyses how terms for divine power have been translated and used in theological arguments in both the past and present. The project deepens our understanding of the political consequences of Indigenous Christian projects in Oceania. It builds and extends collaborative engagements between the ANU, the National University of Samoa, the Pacific Theological College in Suva, and the University of Auckland, and contributes to the goal of Safeguarding Australia by increasing our understanding of our region and the world.
Qualifications
BA (Rutgers)
PhD (University of Pennsylvania)
Current student projects
PhD Students
Dinith Adikari (Associate Supervisor) – Sociality and consumption in Myanmar teashops
Violet Cho (Associate Supervisor) – Pwakanyaw Christian community
Karen Hansen (Associate Supervisor) – Expatriate identity, gender and surfing in the Philippines
Suliljaw Lusausatj (Associate Supervisor) – Indigenous connections between Taiwan and Samoa
Bruma Rios Mendoza (Associate Supervisor) – Biak Mana
Geoffrey Piggott (Associate Supervisor) – International cricket and India–Australia relations
Carlos Ramos Garcia (Associate Supervisor) – Afro-Cuban religion in Australia
Callan Schultz (Associate Supervisor) – Christian fetishization and faith in Sabah
Charlotte Tribouillois (Primary Supervisor) – Intermediaries between the world of human beings and spirits: A study of the figure of the medium in an Australian Spiritualist group
Nadine Vanniasinkam (Primary Supervisor) – Sacred space in Sri Lanka: Coexistence and contestations
Elvin Yifu (Associate Supervisor) – Indigenous and Hindu ethics in northeast India
Past student projects
PhD Students
Lindsay Cameron (Chair) – The Convergence of British and American Methodism in the South Pacific (2017)
Dario Di Rosa (Associate Supervisor) – Frustrated Modernity: Kerewo Histories and Historical Consciousness, Gulf Province, Papua New Guinea (2018)
Poonnatree Jiaviriyaboonya (Associate Supervisor) – Khmer Ways of Seeing: Migration and Divinatory Improvisation in Phnom Penh (2018)
Dayne O’Meara (Associate Supervisor) – Disciplining the Heart: Love, School, and Growing up Karen in Mae Hong Son (2020)
Heather Skousgaard (Associate Supervisor) – Spirituality in the Pub: Finding Voice in a Monological Church (2018)
Saidalavi Palamadathil Chemban Thodika (Associate Supervisor) – Hierarchy, Values and Islam: Social Organization of Muslims in South India (2022)
Jodie-Lee Trembath (Associate Supervisor) – Marketing Academic Authenticities at an International Branch Campus in Vietnam (2019)
Kirsty Wissing (Primary Supervisor) – Permeating Purity: Fluid Rituals of Belonging in Ghana (2021)
Teaching
Convenor
ASIA8022, Approaching Asia and the Pacific: Concepts, Tools, and Methods
ANTH9101, Contemporary Anthropological Theory
Expertise Areas
- ANTHROPOLOGY
- Linguistic Anthropology
- Social and Cultural Anthropology
- OTHER LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE
- RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES
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- 1 Similar Profiles
Network (past 5 years)
Projects
- 2 Finished
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Social Engagement in Spiritualism
Tomlinson, M. & Singleton, A.
Australian Research Council (ARC)
15/03/17 → 1/01/19
Project: Research
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Divine Power in Indigenous Christianity: Translation, Theology and Pacific Politics
Australian Research Council (ARC)
2/07/12 → 31/10/17
Project: Research
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God Is Samoan: Dialogues Between Culture and Theology in the Pacific
Tomlinson, M., 2020, 1 ed. USA: University of Hawai'i Press. 160 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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The Monologic Imagination
Tomlinson, M. & Millie, J., 2017, 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press. 272 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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New Mana: Transformations of a Classic Concept in Pacific Languages and Cultures
Tomlinson, M. & Kawika Tengan, T., 2016, 1st ed. Canberra, Australia: ANU Press. 373 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Ritual Textuality: Pattern and Motion in Performance
Tomlinson, M., 2014, First ed. New York: Oxford University Press. 192 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Christian Politics in Oceania
Tomlinson, M. & McDougall, D., 2013, 1st ed. New York: Berghahn Books.Research output: Book/Report › Book