Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (Wisconsin–Madison)
Durham Campus, Anthropology House, 905-435-5100 ext.5043, Lab: DRA 183 rogerlohmann@trentu.ca
Research Interests: ethnography, linguistics, cultural dynamics, religion, dreaming, human ecology, Melanesia
Graduate and Undergraduate Student Opportunities in Current Research Projects
Ethnographic lab work: I seek potential M.A. students and fourth year undergraduate students to join one of three ongoing laboratory projects on Papua New Guinea (1) material culture, (2) linguistics, and (3) ethnographic film (more details on each below). Accepted Anthropology M.A. students prepare a thesis focused on their research. Accepted fourth year B.A. or B.Sc. students enroll in ANTH 4905Y, 4906H, or 4907H: Research Practicum. To express interest in applying, please contact me and indicate which project you are interested in to discuss what aptitude and experience you might bring to the work.
- Material culture: documenting and analyzing drums, arrows, string bags, traditional dress, or other artifacts from Papua New Guinea. Most of these materials were collected from Asabano people in central New Guinea. At the Anthropology Lab in Oshawa, they are being catalogued and photographed for long-term curation and study. Rotating displays of selections of the objects with explanatory materials are also being prepared for a miniature lab museum. Students aiding in collecting and analyzing data from these objects write an M.A. thesis or an undergraduate paper describing and analyzing a set of objects in light of project-supplied fieldnotes, photographs, and other existing ethnographic data and library research. Project participants adopt criteria for summarizing and analyzing the data they collect and collate, such as technology, style, material composition, manufacture, conservation challenges, and cultural variation.
- Linguistics: analysis of fieldnotes and recordings of the Asaba language of Papua New Guinea. These texts and other previously collected data are in being systematically organized in preparation for an initial dictionary and grammar of this language spoken by about 200 people in central New Guinea. Many of the materials are embedded in fieldnotes, and the project includes identifying, copying, assembly, and indexing in a linguistic database. Rotating miniature lab museum displays making aspects of the language appealing and accessible to visitors are also planned. Students aiding in this collation and display work write an M.A. thesis or undergraduate paper in which they derive some of its grammatical principles from these data in reference to the literature on Papuan linguistics. Elements of its phonology, morphology, or syntax based on the data are among possible topics.
- Ethnographic film: audiovisual analysis and cinematic production using existing field recordings shot in Papua New Guinea. A collection of video and audio recordings, focusing on the Asabano people of central New Guinea, are among the ethnographic data housed at Trent's Anthropology Lab in Oshawa. They include interviews, scenes of rituals, crafts, gardening, and other aspects of daily life from the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s. They are being catalogued with descriptive metadata for long-term curation and easier access in preparation for making a series of ethnographic films. Students participating in this project write a thesis describing and analyzing data they summarize from the recordings according to interest, making reference to relevant literature. Other possible thesis topics for this project include its lessons on the challenges and potentials of making ethnographic films based on existing footage.
Ethnographic fieldwork: I always welcome queries from potential M.A. students wishing to develop, carry out, and write a thesis on ethnographic fieldwork projects. If you have a particular group of people whose ways you would like to study, and a topic you would like to explore among them that you can connect to my work and interests, contact me to discuss your ideas.
Recent Selected Publications
Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2021. Out of body on the happy hunting road: dialogues between dreaming and culture in Papua New Guinea. In New directions in the anthropology of dreaming. Jeannette Mageo and Robin E. Sheriff, eds. Pp. 137–157. London: Routledge.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2021. Ritual dream sharing and Charismatic Church routinisation. In The Palgrave handbook of anthropological ritual studies. Pamela Stewart and Andrew Strathern, eds. Pp. 17–43. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2021. Spirit colonists in New Guinea minds. Anthropological Forum 31(2):148–164.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2019. Culture and dreams. In Cross-cultural psychology: contemporary themes and perspectives. Second edition. Kenneth D. Keith, ed. Pp. 327–341. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar, ed. 2019. Haunted Pacific: anthropologists investigate spectral apparitions across Oceania. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2018. Fiction in fact: Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia and the creation of a Green culture with anthropological ingredients. Anthropology and Humanism 43(2):178–195.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2017. Capitalism meets its match: failed mimesis of market economics among the Asabano of Papua New Guinea. In Mimesis and Pacific transcultural encounters: in time, in trade, and in ritual reconfigurations. Jeannette Mageo and Elfriede Hermann, eds. Pp. 164–185. New York: Berghahn.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar and Shayne A. P. Dahl. 2014. Cultural contingency and the varieties of lucid dreaming. In Lucid dreaming: new perspectives on consciousness in sleep. Vol. 2: Religion, creativity, and culture. Ryan Hurd and Kelly Bulkeley, eds. Pp. 23–43. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2014. Investigating the causes of peace to end war: an introduction/ Introduction: interroger les causes de la paix pour mettre fin à la guerre. Anthropologica 56(2):255–267.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2014. A cultural mechanism to sustain peace: how the Asabano made and ended war. Anthropologica 56(2):285–300.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar and Shayne A. P. Dahl. 2013. Sleep, dreaming, and the imagination: psychosocial adaptations to an ever-changing world. Reviews in Anthropology 42(2):56–84.
Lohmann, Roger Ivar. 2013. Sleeping among the Asabano: surprises in intimacy and sociality at the margins of consciousness. In Sleep around the world: anthropological perspectives. Katie Glaskin and Richard Chenhall, eds. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 21–44.