In-law relations on a New Guinea island

Abstract

This paper examines affinal relations among the Panaeati — a canoe building people who live in southeast Papua New Guinea. The Panaeati exchange system is envisioned as a total economy: men verbally request goods from in-laws (and friends) to feed canoe builders; men trade the canoes and use the acquired goods to sponsor mortuary ceremonies; the ceremonies, in turn, lead to the acquisition of land rights for the builder/sponsor. Through an analysis of a tape recorded verbal request, the rules for social interaction between in-laws are delineated. This micro-level analysis complements the broader analysis of mortuary/land right exchanges, allowing the economy to be understood through some of the principles for face-to-face interaction outlined by Erving Goffman and sociolinguists.