REVIEWS

The Introduction of Provincial Government in Papua New Guinea: Lessons from Bougainville. By Diana Conyers. Discussion Paper No. 1. Boroko (Papua New Guinea), New Guinea Research Unit. April, 1975. Pp. 54 + iv. Price: 1 Kina, ($A1).     

BOOKS RECEIVED

Hal B. Levine and Marlene Wolfzahn Levine. Urbanization in Papua New Guinea: A Study of Ambivalent Townsmen. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. 160 pp. $21.50.

T. J. May, ed. Change and Movement: Readings on Internal Migration in Papua New Guinea. Canberra: Australian National University Press, for Papua New Guinea Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research, 1978. xii + 284 pp. $21.95, Aust.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Trading Nature: Tahitians, Europeans and Ecological Exchange: By Jennifer Newell Claude Lévi‐Strauss: the poet in the laboratory: By Patrick Wilcken A Certain Age: colonial Jakarta through the memories of its intellectuals.: By Rudolf Mrázek Beyond the Sacred Forest: Complicating Conservation in Southeast Asia.: Edited by Michael Dove, Percy Sajise and Amity Doolittle Sung Tales from the Papua New Guinea Highlands: Studies in Form, Meaning, and Sociocultural Context: Edited by Alan Rumsey and Don Niles Villagers and the City. Melanesian Experiences of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.: By Michael Goddard (ed.) The Many Worlds of R.H.Mathews: in Search of an Australian anthropologist: By Martin Thomas     

Anthropology and the Artifacts of Medical Practice

Brown, Paula. Beyond a Mountain Valley: The Simbu of Papua New Guinea. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995. xix + 296 pp. including notes, glossary, bibliography, and index. $36.00 cloth.

Tuzin, Donald. The Cassowary's Revenge: The Life and Death of Masculinity in a New Guinea Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. xiii + 256 pp. including notes, maps, references, and index. $45.00 cloth, $18.95 paper.

Biersack, Aletta, ed. Papuan Borderlands: Huli, Duna, and Ipili Perspectives on the Papua New Guinea Highlands. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995. xiv + 440 pp. including collected bibliography, other works cited, and index. $59.50 cloth.     

REVIEW

Papua New Guinea: the struggle for development. By John Connell. London and New York: Routledge 1997 Pp. xiv + 354. Price: £52.50.     

Nupela Masta? Local and Expatriate Labour in a Chinese-Run Nickel Mine in Papua New Guinea 1

Abstract

Studies of mining projects in Papua New Guinea, since the development of the Panguna copper mine in Bougainville during the 1960s, have contributed to our understanding of the politics of interactions between resource companies, host governments and landowners. The Ramu Nickel mine, situated in northern Papua New Guinea, is China’s largest investment in the Pacific to date at US$1.4 billion. The project is managed by a state-owned enterprise, China Metallurgical Corporation, and financed by China ExIm Bank. This venture presents an opportunity to understand Chinese resource investment in a comparative perspective. While many issues, such as conflict over land, internal migration, and the limited involvement of the Papua New Guinean state, are constant, one aspect specific to Chinese resource investment is the use (or non-use) of host country labour, and the high proportion of Chinese labour employed at the mine sites. This practice differs from the relatively limited, short-term use of expatriate labour common to Western mining projects in developing countries. The attitudes and experiences of local and Chinese workers and managers will be examined to determine what is new in this approach to resource extraction.     

Torres Strait and Dawdhay: Dimensions of Self and Otherness on Yam Island1

When Papua New Guinea attained independence two decades ago an absolute distinction was created between Papua New Guinea and the Torres Strait: Papuans were firmly placed in Papua New Guinea territory and Torres Strait Islanders in Australian territory. In constituting themselves as Torres Strait Islanders and more specifically as Australians, Yam Island people's contemporary expressions of their connection to, yet distance from, lowland Papua New Guinea can be best described as ambivalent, pulsing between identification and incorporation, distance and disavowal. I argue that this ambivalence is not an artefact of the establishment of the border per se, but rather it was through the establishment of the border that a new layer was added to Self and Other constructions by Yam Island people in terms of how they see themselves and their Papuan neighbours. The sometimes fraught nature of this relationship can be understood in light of the continuing socio‐political impacts of these international border lines on people who have recently combined a somewhat legalistic and political definition of themselves, and of Papuans, with perennial extra‐legal definitions. I suggest it is in isolating and exploring domains of interaction that we can see the fluidity and dynamism of Self and Other definitions in operation, and in so doing better appreciate their essential imbrication.     

Reviews

A Thousand Graduates: Conflict in University Development in Papua New Guinea, 1961–1976. By Ian Howie-Willis Aboriginal Power in Australian Society. Edited by Michael C. Howard Rituals of Manhood: Male Initiation in Papua New Guinea. By Gilbert H. Herdt., ed. Introduction by R. M. Keesing Resource Managers: North American and Australian Hunter-Gatherers. Edited by Nancy M. Williams and Eugene S. Hunn Gregory Bateson: The Legacy of a Scientist. By David Lipset Through a Glass Darkly: Beer and Modernization in Papua New Guinea. Edited by M. Marshall Person and Myth: Maurice Leenhardt in the Melanesian World. By James Clifford Ok Tedi: the Pot of Gold. By Richard Jackson Who shall succeed? Agricultural development and social inequality on a Philippine frontier. By James F. Eder One Man Cannot Rule a Thousand: Fission in a Ponapean Chiefdom. By Glen Peterson     

Intersections: history,memory, discipline. By Brij V. Lal. Lautoka

Bellona Island Beliefs and Rituals. By Torben Monberg. Pacific Islands Monograph Series No. 9. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1991. xix, 449 pp, figs, genealogies, maps, photos, tables, bibliog., index. $US42.

Te Waimana, The Spring of Mana: Tuhoe History and the Colonial Encounter. By Jeffrey Sissons. Te Whenua Series No. 6, Pacific People, Land, and Literature. Dunedin, University of Otago Press, 1991. xiv, 304 pp; maps, photos, figs, gloss., bibliog., index. ISBN 0–908569–59–9. $NZ39.95.

Labour in the South Pacific. Edited by Clive Moore, Jacqueline Leckie and Doug Munro. Townsville, James Cook University, 1990. 335 pp, maps, tables, bibliog., index.

Health and Healing in Tropical Australia and Papua New Guinea. Edited by Roy MacLeod and Donald Denoon. Townsville, James Cook University, Department of History and Politics and Centre for Melanesian Studies, 1991. xviii, 213 pp, intro., notes, bibliog., index. $A16 ($A25 outside Australia including postage).

Beach‐la‐Mar to Bislama: the emergence of a national language in Vanuatu. By Terry Crowley. Oxford Studies in Language Contact. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1990. xxi, 422 pp. $A120.

The Mundugumor: From the Field Notes of Margaret Mead and Reo Fortune. By Nancy McDowell. Washington, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. xiii, 337 pp.

Singer in a Songless Land: A Life of Edward Tregear 1846—1931. By K, R. Howe. Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1991. 241 pp. $NZ39.95.

The Empty Place: Poetry, Space and Being among the Foi of Papua New Guinea. By James S. Weiner. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1991. xiv, 218 pp, maps, illus., bibliog., index.

On the Margins of History: From the Punjab to Fiji. By Oskar Spate. History of Development Studies 3. Canberra, National Centre for Development Studies, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1991. 142 pp, app. $25.     

REVIEWS

Middle Wahgi Dictionary. By Evelyn M. Ramsey. Church of the Nazarene, Mount Hagen, Papua New Guinea. 1975. 457 pp.     

Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: Hans Singer, Neelamber Hatti and Ramesbwar Tandon (eds), Technology Transfer by Multinationals. Paul W. Beamish, Multinational Joint Ventures in Developing Countries. Yves Beigbeder, Management Problems in United Nations Organizations: Reform or Decline? Frits van Holthoon and Marcel van der Linden (eds), Internationalism in the Labour Movement 1830–1940. R. Vos (ed.), From Crisis to Equitable Growth. A New Development Agenda for Latin America. PREALC, In Search of Equity. Planning for the Satisfaction of Basic Needs in Latin America. Margaret Garritsen de Vries, Balance of Payments Adjustment, 1945 to 1986. The IMF Experience. Birol A. Yesilada, Charles D. Brockett and Bruce Drury (eds), Agrarian Reform in Reverse: The Food Crisis in the Third World. J. Hinderink and J. J. Slerkenburg, Agricultural Commercialization and Government Policy in Africa. Piers Blaikie and Harold Brookfield, Land Degradation and Society. Mike Donaldson and Kenneth Good, Articulated Development: Traditional and Capitalist Agriculture in Papua New Guinea. Sun Jingzhi (ed.), The Economic Geography of China. Peter Bowden, National Monitoring and Evaluation, Development Programs in the Third World. Amiya Kumar Bagchi, Public Intervention and Industrial Restructuring in China, India and Republic of Korea. William K. A. Agyei, Fertility and Family Planning in the Third World: A Case Study of Papua New Guinea. G. N. Ramu, Family Structure and Fertility: Emerging Patterns in an Indian City. S. Alessandrini and B. Dallago (eds), The Unofficial Economy: Consequences and Perspectives in Different Economic Systems. The Netherlands Review of Development Studies.     

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: The Method of Hope: anthropology, philosophy, and Fijian knowledge By Hirokazu Miyazaki Wehali the Female Land: traditions of a Timorese ritual centre By Tom Therik Papua New Guinea Prints By Melanie Eastburn The People of the Sea: Environment, Identity, and History in Oceania By Paul D'Arcy In Colonial New Guinea: Anthropological Perspectives Naomi M Mc Pherson Texts and Contexts: Reflections in Pacific Islands Historiography Edited by Doug Munro Yumbulyumbulmantha ki‐Awarawu. All kinds of Things from Country. Yanyuwa Ethnobiological Classification By John Bradley, Miles Holmes, Dinah Norman Marrngawi Annie Isaac Karrakayn, Jemima Miller Wuwarlu and Ida Ninganga     

Where Do You Belong? Identity,New Guinea Islanders,and the Power of Peles

Peles is a Melanesian concept related to the grounding of a person's Indigenous origin in a particular place. This notion is especially important in Papua New Guinea where, upon first meeting, people are likely to ask, ‘Where are you from?’ Ascertaining someone's peles enables the rapid establishment between previously unknown people of social connections and obligations, kinship, and identity. Despite the increasing influences of westernisation, globalisation, urbanisation, and migration, peles remains steadfast at the centre of Papua New Guinean social identity construction. This article addresses the current and emerging ways in which people of New Guinea Islander descent – both at ‘home’ or in the diaspora – connect to peles, whether physically or otherwise and details the social politics of these assertions.     

REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Le Sabbat des Lucioles: Sorcellerie, chamanisme et imaginaire cannibale en Nouvelle‐Guinée. [The Sabbath of the fireflies: Sorcery, Shamanism and the Cannibal Imaginary in New Guinea]. By Pierre Lemonnnier Les tambours de l'oubli. La vie ordinaire et cerémonialle d'un peuple forestier de Papouasie. Drumming to forget. Ordinary life and ceremonies among a Papua New Guinea Group of Forest‐dwellers. By Pascale Bonnemere and Pierre Lemonnier. The Severed Snake: Matrilineages, Making Place, and a Melanesian Chritianity in Southeast Solomon Islands. By Michael W. Scott Acts of Integration, Expressions of Faith: Madness, Death and Ritual in Melanau Ontology By Ann L. Appleton     

Narokobi’s Melanesian Philosophy in the Papua New Guinean Legal System

ABSTRACT

Bernard Narokobi dedicated his career as a law reformer, jurist and parliamentarian to making Papua New Guinea’s legal system a catalyst for a distinctively Melanesian philosophy. This philosophy, ‘the Melanesian Way’, emphasized Papua New Guineans’ embeddedness within their local social worlds, including spirits and the natural environment. The legal foundation for the Melanesian Way was set down in the National Goals and Directive Principles and Basic Social Obligations, which are stated in the Preamble to the Constitution of Papua New Guinea. These make the ideals of social justice, participatory democracy, national sovereignty and sustainable development a legal aspiration and an impetus for formally recognizing the social forms that Papua New Guinean people themselves experience as providing order in their lives. Legislation that Narokobi promoted over the course of his career offered practical mechanisms for operationalizing these ideals in accordance with their original constitutional foundation.     

REVIEWS

Forms of Symbolic Action. Edited by R. F. Spencer. The Interpretation of Ritual. Edited by J. S. La Fontaine. The Curse of Souw: Principles of Daribi Clan Definition and Alliance in New Guinea. By Roy Wagner. The Politics of Dependence—Papua New Guinea 1968. A. L. Epstein, R. S. Parker and M. Reay (Eds.). Fighting with Food: Leadership, Values and Social Control in a Massim Society. By Michael W. Young. Proisxozdenie i Rannjaja istorija Aborigenov Avstralii. (Origin and Early History of the Aborigines of Australia.) By V. R. Kabo. The Army in Papua-New Guinea. The Journal of Pacific History. Vol. 6. J. W. Davidson and H. E. Maude (Eds.) Would-be Entrepreneurs. By Ruth S. Finney.     

A new fossil genus of forest wallaby (Marsupialia,Macropodinae) and a review of Protemnodon from eastern Australia and New Guinea

A new macropodine genus and species, Silvaroo bila, is described from the Pliocene Chinchilla Sand of Queensland. The generic concept of Protemnodon is reviewed, and it is concluded that two Pliocene species previously placed in that genus (bandharr and buloloensis) belong in Silvaroo. Species of Silvaroo resemble the modern forest wallabies of Papua New Guinea (species of Dorcopsis and Dorcopsulus) and also bear close phenetic resemblance to the late Miocene Dorcopsoides fossilis. Forest wallabies are not known from mainland Australia after the middle Pliocene, but occur in the late Pliocene and Pleistocene of New Guinea.     

A double tragedy: Political authority and male identity in the new guinea highlands

Feil, D. K. Ways of Exchange: The Enga Tee of Papua New Guinea. St. Lucia: Queensland University Press, 1984. xvi + 269 pp. including photographs, bibliography, and index. $37.50 cloth.

Gordon, Robert J., and Mervyn J. Meggitt. Law and Order in the New Guinea Highlands: Encounters with Enga. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1985. xii + 283 pp. including bibiography, and index. $35.00 cloth.

Strathern, Andrew. A Line of Power. New York: Tavistock, 1984. vi + 170 pp. including bibliography, and index. $12.95 paper.     

REVIEWS

Private Politics: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to ‘Big-man’ Systems. Edited by Martin A. van Bakel, Renée R. Hagesteijn and Peter van de Velde . The Politics and Finance of Provincial Government in Papua New Guinea. By Norman Bonney . Torres trait Islanders: Custom and Colonialism. By J. Beckett . Aging and Its Transformations: Moving Towards Death in Pacific Societies. Edited by Dorothy Ayers Counts and David R. Counts . Gender and Society in the New Guinea Highlands: an Anthropological Perspective on Antagonism Towards Women. By Marilyn G. Gelber . An Introduction to Aboriginal Societies. By W.H. Edwards . Cosmologies in the Making: a Generative Approach to Cultural Variation in Inner New Guinea. By Fredrik Barth . Cultural Models in Language and Thought. Edited by D. Holland and Naomi Quinn . Leslie A. White: Ethnological Essays. Edited by Beth Dillingham and Robert L. Carneiro . Wetan Fieldnotes: Some Eastern Indonesian Texts with Linguistic Notes and a Vocabulary. By J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong . The Heart of the Pearlshell: The Mythological Dimension of Foi Sociality. By James F. Weiner . Upon a Stone Altar: A History of the Island of Pohnpei to 1890. By David Hanlon . Copra Marketing and Price Stabilization in Papua New Guinea. A History to 1975. By Harry H. Jackman . Wealth of the Solomons: a History of a Pacific Archipelago, 1800–1978. By Judith A. Bennett . An Account in Two Volumes of Two Voyages to the South Seas. By Jules S-C. Dumont D'Urville — Translated and edited by Helen Rosenman . Connections: Essays on Black Literatures. Edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson . Anthropological Studies of Religion: An Introductory Text. By Brian Morris . Human Resources Development in the Pacific. Edited by C.D. Throsby . Intimations of Infinity: The Mythopoeia of the Iqwaye Counting System and Number. By Jadran Mimica . La Dernière Isle. By Joel Bonnemaison .