Growing Knowledge in Bolivip,Papua New Guinea

Knowledge practices in the Mountain Ok or Min area of Papua New Guinea have, since Fredrik Barth's pioneering Baktaman study, come to exemplify ‘secrecy’ in Melanesian ethnography and have consequently represented something of an enigma to anthropological interpretation. This paper reports research among the Angkaiyakmin of Bolivip village, Western Province, and addresses the problem posed by Min revelatory practices. The Barthian paradigm interprets awem as ‘secret knowledge’, and holds that revelations are restricted to infrequent performances of male initiation rituals which serve to manage the distribution of secrets exclusively among suitably qualified men. The Bolivip data, however, suggest that awem (glossed here as ‘important’) is more widely known, and conventionally revealed to women and junior initiates in hidden contexts. Through analysing the movements involved in composing efficacious forms by combining ‘halves' in Bolivip, and illustrating the comparison Angkaiyakmin draw between taro gardening and cult ritual, the paper argues for a reorientation of approaches to ‘secrecy’ and to conceptions of ‘knowledge’.     

Macropodines from the Pliocene Otibanda Formation,Papua New Guinea

Newly collected material of macropodines from the Otibanda Formation, P.N.G., includes previously unknown elements from described taxa, as well as material of a new and plesiomorphic macropodine, Watutia novaeguineae gen. et. sp. nov. Known only from adult upper and lower cheek tooth rows, this species shows a close similarity to undescribed macropodines of Tertiary age from northwestern Queensland and Hadronomas puckridgi from the Miocene of the Northern Territory, Australia. The upper molar row assigned to Dorcopsis sp. by Plane (1967), but regarded to be more closely related to Dendrolagus by Woodburne (1967), is here interpreted to be closer in morphology to species of Dorcopsis than Dendrolagus.     

Migration,myth and magic in Papua New Guinea

The author examines some of the assumptions, classifications, and techniques that affect the study of migration in specific countries. Using migration in Papua New Guinea as an example, he critically reviews the conventional approaches to the study of migration     

Women,Nation and Decolonisation in Papua New Guinea

This paper explores the question of women, decolonisation and nation-building. It argues that the inclusion of women within the nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) was problematic partly because women had rarely experienced mainstream colonial rule — an experience that elsewhere provided a basis for participation in the post-colonial state. The paper also investigates how women were perceived and represented by male writers at independence. While the Pangu Pati attempted to include women in state-building, these efforts were not adequately supported. PNG's achievement of independence coincided with the globalisation of second-wave feminism, and this was to prove critical for PNG's female citizens in their efforts to be included in the new state, for PNG's membership in the United Nations provided an external push to raise women's participation in the nation. Nevertheless, the government's dependence on international organisations to push the women's agenda also hampered the development of an autonomous women's movement in the country. The paper argues that, for PNG's female citizens, colonisation, independence and decolonisation occurred simultaneously after 1975.     

War Shields of the Torricelli Mountains,West Sepik Province,Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT The usefulness of the term ‘ethnolinguistic group’, as a construct suggesting that ‘differences in language automatically translate into differences in culture’, has been questioned by Welsch, Terrel and Nadolski (1992). Not many researchers would insist on the term ‘automatically’, but would nevertheless support an argument for a strong correlation between material culture and language. As a contribution to this debate, we discuss two types of wood shields of the Torricelli Mountains (one of which is being identified for the first time) and pigskin shields to the south of the Torricellis, their use, and the details of the carved designs of the wood shields. The results of our analysis provide limited support for the correlation of material culture and language but highlight the need for analysis of material culture based on reliable data for a large number and wide range of artefacts, from defined regions, presently held in museums and private collections worldwide.     

A Pre-Lapita Structure at Apalo,Arawe Islands,Papua New Guinea

Stilt structures in the inter-tidal zone or over shallow water on fringing reefs are widely accepted as a feature of settlements of the Lapita cultural complex in Near Oceania. Claims for similar structures in a pre-Lapita context at the Apalo site in the Arawe Islands, New Britain, Papua New Guinea, have been queried on several grounds. Re-evaluation of the Apalo evidence, together with 10 additional AMS radiocarbon dates, establishes human activity associated with some form of structure and possibly with a ground stone axe about 400–500 years before the Lapita pottery occupation. The paucity of occupational refuse suggests a non-residential structure perhaps associated with water transport. Comparisons with the older Dongan midden site in the Sepik-Ramu basin suggest stilt structures were probably used there as well. An apparent shift in depositional processes between the pre-Lapita and Lapita use of Apalo could reflect changed sea conditions arising from increased ENSO activity.     

Fossil frogs from the central highlands of Papua New Guinea

Characteristic features of the pelves of 15 species of extant New Guinean highland frogs (Hylidae and Microhylidae) are described and figured. Ilia among species in these families were found to be relatively invariate with similar sized species often indistinguishable; thus fossil species diversity is therefore likely to be underestimated in such deposits. Nine-two disarticulated ilia from the highland Nombe rockshelter deposit represent a minimum of six species: two Hylidae and four Microhylidae; most of these ilia were deposited in the late Pleistocene before significant human activity at the site. Problems of drawing conclusions about the Pleistocene frog fauna of the area, especially what the main predator was, from such a small sample and limited understanding of the site taphonomy are discussed.