In the Sepik, names feature centrally in political and religious contexts. Esoteric knowledge about totemic names enables Nyaura men to achieve status and power and can set them in contact with spirits. A recently arrived Pentecostal/evangelical movement—Operation Joshua—claims to have found the true name of God, whom it presents as being radically different to the beings people's ancestors have known. At Lake Chambri, however, the Nyaura (West Iatmul) community Timbunmeli had accommodated Catholicism to their culture long before Operation Joshua came to their village. While Operation Joshua demonizes Nyaura spirits, the Catholic community understands God to be an ancestral being for whom different clans know different names. Taking a political ontology perspective, I analyze the encounter of Operation Joshua and Nyaura Catholicism in Timbunmeli in relation to cosmo‐ontological politics pursued by ambitious Nyaura men and different denominations. I suggest that denominational pluralism creates ontological pluralism in Timbunmeli, where different actors engage different truth claims concerning the being and reality of central Christian figures in their world‐making practices.

中文翻译：

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“你必须叫正确的名字” –约书亚行动在巴布亚新几内亚的尚布里湖遇见宇宙学和天主教

在Sepik中，名称在政治和宗教背景下居于中心地位。关于图腾名的深奥知识使Nyaura男子获得了地位和力量，并使他们与灵魂接触。最近到来的五旬节/福音运动-约书亚行动（Osperation Joshua）声称找到了上帝的真名，与上帝的祖先所知道的众生完全不同。但是，在尚布里湖上，西约特穆尔（Nyaura）社区廷布梅利（Timbunmeli）社区在约书亚行动（Oshua）来到他们的村庄很久以前就向他们的文化提供了天主教。约书亚行动妖魔化了Nyaura的灵魂，而天主教徒则将上帝理解为祖先，不同的宗族知道不同的名字。从政治本体论的角度来看，我分析了雄心勃勃的尼亚乌拉人和不同教派所追求的宇宙本体论政治学有关廷布姆贝利的约书亚行动和尼亚乌拉天主教的遭遇。我建议宗派多元化在廷布梅利创造本体论多元化，在这里，不同的参与者就中央基督徒人物在其造世界实践中的存在和现实提出不同的真理主张。