The Return of the Kingdom:<i>Agama</i>and the Millennium among the Imyan of Irian Jaya, Indonesia

Abstract

Imyan people of the southwestern Bird's Head Peninsula of Irian Jaya await an event that promises wealth, justice, and a new world order: Jesus Christ's kingdom on earth. Millennial beliefs among the Imyan derive from a potent blend of Christian doctrine, ancestral transgressions, relationships with sky deities, and a long history of contact with the kingdom of Sailolof, a tributary principality of the North Moluccan sultanate of Tidore. By analyzing the present-day Imyan fear of a growing divide between heaven and earth, this article shows how male Imyans reconcile their current marginality within the Indonesian state to a future that is rooted in local myth and Christian doctrine.