Win Neisen 2020: Transformations of historicity in the Paliau Movement (Manus, Papua New Guinea)

Abstract

Win Neisen is a local, indigenously developed church, that is the contemporary manifestation of the well-known Paliau Movement which started in Manus, Papua New Guinea, in 1946. One of its central doctrines is that reality is divided into two spheres, the physical and the spiritual. Win Neisen followers adhere to a millennial vision, that involves the final dissolution of the opposition between the two spheres. In this paper I present recent material on Win Neisen beliefs and practices in order to characterize its particular form of millennialism. I conclude that this is very different from the millennialism of the early Paliau Movement and argue that a perspective on different regimes of historicity is useful for explaining this difference. Finally, I suggest a possible connection between Win Neisen’s emphasis on the material–immaterial opposition and its specific regime of historicity relating to the challenges of the present time.