Cannabis and Fantasies of Development: Revaluing Relations through Land in Rural Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Over the past decade, marijuana has become a significant element within Papua New Guinea's communities, revealing an important connection to the broader political economy. For young men, fluctuating commodity prices, the intermittent exploitation of mineral wealth and a reluctant tourist economy only gives them a taste for development. Marijuana seems to offer its permanence. Somewhere between the harsh reality of local economic and ecological futures young men near the town of Wau (Morobe Province) imagine themselves as successful entrepreneurs in the emerging drug trade. In particular, I consider how young men imagine the planting of this illicit crop as mediating tensions between acting individually and acting communally. While most have yet to take action on these fantasies, they provide insight into the development aspirations of rural Papua New Guineans. In this paper, I examine these development fantasies as they speak to a broader political economy and transformations of local landscapes throughout rural Pacific communities.