Wok Kako and Wok Bisnis

Abstract

This paper deals with efforts undertaken by Papua New Guineans1) during the last decades to improve their welfare either by means of ‘cargo cults’ or other movements which at least seem to be more effective, such as individual or group cash cropping interprises, transport businesses and so on. It attempts to delineate the similarities and differences between these types of movements and to relate them to developments within the colonial situation in Papua New Guinea (the eastern half of the island), until recently under Australian administration. The paper is based in part on my reading of the relevant literature and in part on field work carried out during the period 1968 to 1973 in various parts of Papua New Guinea and, to a lesser extent, on my 1960–62 research among the Bokondini Dani in the West Irian Highlands, an area having close cultural affinities with the Papua New Guinea Highlands.2)