In colonial New Guinea: anthropological perspectives

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Papua New Guinea is a place that captures the imagination. It is linguistically, culturally, and environmentally diverse. Its history is a layered saga of colonialism; the indigenous inhabitants of Papua New Guinea were at different points in time administered by Germany, Britain, and Australia. This collection of anthropological essays attempts to reveal the complexity of Papua New Guinea s colonial experience. In these original essays, ten Pacific scholars look at Papua New Guinea s colonial experience through a diverse array of eyewitnesses, sources, and viewpoints. These narratives provide a rich and nuanced set of testimonies and reflections, enabling a full range of historical personae to speak to the reality of colonial life. Together, their stories form a detailed ethnography of colonists and colonizers, an entirely new, and necessary, contribution toward understanding Papua New Guinea in particular and colonialism in general.