The kingdom of Portugal,homage and papal ‘fiefdom’ in the second half of the twelfth Century

This paper examines the relationship between the newly formed kingdom of Portugal and the papacy in the second half of the twelfth century. The kings of Portugal sought a close alliance with the papacy and their relationship has been seen as that of ‘vassal’ and overlord. However, it seems likely that this alliance owed more to the tradition of monastic protection grants. The act of homage performed to the papal legate by King Afonso I is an example of a wider use of the homage ceremony. Homage was not only used to cement ‘feudal’ bonds, but also to make peace or to confirm pacts and agreements. The annual census paid by the kingdom to Rome was part of the same grant of protectio. The papal–Portuguese letters used the same language and terminology as ecclesiastical protectio, which was awarded by the papacy to monasteries, churches and eventually kingdoms and kings.     

Mining Workers or ‘Opportunist’ Tribesmen?: a Tribal Workforce in a Papua New Guinea Mine1

This paper looks at the formation and working of a ‘green mining workforce’ in a Papua New Guinea (PNG) mine. It describes and analyses a group of tribesmen whose entry into the modern wage‐earning workforce has resulted from the establishment of a large mining project in their area. The Porgeran tribesmen 2 2 This paper uses ‘tribesmen’ as a generic concept to also include Porgeran women mining workers, many of whom did domestic chores around campsites. However, they represented only a very tiny portion of the Porgeran segment of the entire mining workforce.
, of the Highlands of PNG have embraced the concept of monetary employment and quickly assimilated into the mining work environment. However, their admission into wage employment has been achieved through a series of personal and workplace challenges, as anticipated of any transitory workforce. The paper discusses those challenges and also takes into consideration the views and perceptions of non‐Porgeran mining workers towards them. Hence, one of the major objectives of this paper is to address the transformation of this tribal people into a modern wage‐earning workforce. It concludes by identifying possible avenues for anthropological studies of such groups of people to record their peculiar perceptions of, and attitudes to, an alien but promising new alternative to their subsistence life style.