Cowboys and Aliens: Body Techniques and Audience Reception in Malaita, Solomon Islands

Abstract

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Mobile phones, gender‐based violence, and distrust in state services: Case studies from Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea

“…In reference to experiences with gender‐based violence, I tease out challenges faced by state services, and in extension Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) projects that rely on digital technologies to decrease the distance between social services and rural residents. My findings reaffirm existing, predominantly anthropological research on mobile phones as morally ambivalent communication technologies in Melanesia (see Lipset, , ; Taylor, ; G. Hobbis, , ). However, I also show how this ambivalence shifts to discontent in engagements with (urban) social service providers.…”

“…This failure of state services that are tasked with enforcing laws against family‐based violence (and many other laws) and subsequent distrust in service providers is corroborated by my own findings in Solomon Islands (S.K. Hobbis, ). In brief, my research reveals that the colonial and postcolonial Solomon Islands state has failed to reliably provide access to basic services, from health care to road infrastructure.…”

“…There is a lot to be optimistic about when considering the role of mobile phones and other digital technologies in Melanesia and the ways they may positively transform gender relations, or more pragmatically help victims of gender‐based violence. Reflecting my own, contemporaneous observations, Geoffrey Hobbis (, ) outlines how in the Lau Lagoon women have come to rely on mobile phones as a means to coordinate (temporary) escapes from violence. With mobile phones, women are able to reach out to relatives living elsewhere, to arrange stays with them, and to contact transportation providers to facilitate their (temporary) moves.…”

“…On a more everyday basis, the privacy and increasingly individual ownership of mobile phones, SIM and microSD cards, enable women to subvert men's control over at least some aspects of their lives. On Malaita, G. Hobbis () found that mothers use mobile phones to expose their children to movies and other audio‐visual materials that depict positive, non‐violent gender relations and constructions of masculinity. In urban Vanuatu, Kraemer (: 45) observed how young women use mobile phones to ‘subvert patriarchal restrictions’ that are being imposed on their mobilities and social interactions.…”

“…Women in various Melanesian contexts have been found to use mobile phones to make and receive cold calls to identify potential romantic partners, or ‘phone friends’ (Andersen, ; Jorgensen, ; Kraemer, ; G. Hobbis, , ). During the ensuing conversations they tease, flirt and joke and, significantly, as Andersen (: 319) suggests, they ‘experiment with stereotypically masculine powers of verbal artistry, influence and persuasion’.…”