Contemporary Papua New Guinea Research Articles

Reprises: Chris Gregory’s Gifts and Commodities and the frontier


 
 
 Chris Gregory’s Gifts and Commodities (1982) is widely regarded as a classic in economic anthropology as well as in studies on Melanesia. The work offers a lucid typology and de nition of the concepts of ‘gift’ and ‘commodity’based on the tradition of political economy and economic anthropology.It shows how in colonial Papua New Guinea (PNG) gift and commodity economies articulated with each other and—contrary to the assumption of neoclassical economists—expanded simultaneously. In recounting how labour and primary production were commodi ed in colonial PNG, Gregory analyses the development and demise of the plantation economy and utilizes the concept of the ‘labour frontier’ that moved to new areas and eventually closed leading to the crisis of the plantation sector. In this essay I will brie y discuss Gregory’s notion of the ‘labour frontier’, relate it to later theorizations of the concept of ‘frontier’ and discuss how Gregory’saccounts helped me to understand contemporary dynamics of oil palmdevelopment in contemporary PNG.
 
 

Long-term acceptability, durability and bio-efficacy of ZeroVector\xae durable lining for vector control in Papua New Guinea

BackgroundThis study examined the acceptability, durability and bio-efficacy of pyrethroid-impregnated durable lining (DL) over a three-year period post-installation in residential homes across Papua New Guinea (PNG).MethodsZeroVector® ITPS had previously been installed in 40 homes across four study sites representing a cross section of malaria transmission risk and housing style. Structured questionnaires, DL visual inspections and group interviews (GIs) were completed with household heads at 12- and 36-months post-installation. Three DL samples were collected from all households in which it remained 36-months post-installation to evaluate the bio-efficacy of DL on Anopheles mosquitoes. Bio-efficacy testing followed WHO guidelines for the evaluation of indoor residual spraying.ResultsThe DL was still intact in 86 and 39% of study homes at the two time periods, respectively. In homes in which the DL was still intact, 92% of household heads considered the appearance at 12-months post installation to be the same as, or better than, that at installation compared to 59% at 36-months post-installation. GIs at both time points confirmed continuing high acceptance of DL, based in large part of the perceived attractiveness and functionality of the material. However, participants frequently asserted that they, or their family members, had ceased or reduced their use of mosquito nets as a result of the DL installation. A total of 16 houses were sampled for bio-efficacy testing across the 4 study sites at 36-months post-installation. Overall, combining all sites and samples, both knock-down at 30 min and mortality at 24 h were 100%.ConclusionsThe ZeroVector® DL installation remained highly acceptable at 36-months post-installation, the material and fixtures proved durable and the efficacy against malaria vectors did not decrease. However, the DL material had been removed from over 50% of the original study homes 3 years post-installation, largely due to deteriorating housing infrastructure. Furthermore, the presence of the DL installation appeared to reduce ITN use among many participating householders. The study findings suggest DL may not be an appropriate vector control method for large-scale use in the contemporary PNG malaria control programme.

Hiding Behind the Church: Towards an Understanding of Sorcery in Christian Papua New Guinea

This paper considers the assumption that the long-term success of the Christian Churches in some parts of Papua New Guinea (PNG) will eliminate or even regulate the magical practices that are nowadays commonly described as ‘sorcery’. Among the Vula'a of PNG men seeking prestige and influence turn to the Church, and some of them are said to be sorcerers who ‘hide behind it’. Most deaths continue to be attributed to sorcery, and fear of sorcery and the need to counter it with other sorcery eclipses Christian proscriptions. It is power - rather than the introduced concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ brought by Christian colonizers that dominates current discourse - that contributes to the persistence of sorcery albeit in a variety of new and introduced forms. Sorcery is effective because it creates a culture of fear. I conclude, then, by applying Heidegger's analysis of fear to Vula'a sorcery to suggest that an anthropology of fear will contribute to a better understanding of sorcery in contemporary PNG.

Looking Like a Culture1

Across contemporary Papua New Guinea (PNG), concerns about culture, about possessing and appearing as a culture, are highly salient and contested. This is in part an outgrowth of commercial and state agencies promoting their products and policies through distinct images of PNG's myriad cultures. These agencies seek to incite forms of possession, as individual consumers and as national citizens. In a different but allied manner, concerns with appearing as a culture are part of long‐standing Melanesian coercive relations, where people seek to be recognised in publicly valued ways. The paper addresses the interactions between these modes of appearance across a range of examples from PNG ethnography to elucidate how contemporary PNG peoples make themselves up into different kinds of cultural ‘things’ that are displayed, mutually recognised and evaluated.