Discovering Outsiders

Changing South-Pacific : Identities and Transformations

“…If Wutumsisi had still been strong they [the members of this lineage] would not agreed, or they would only have given a little bit of land. 28 Four other cases were reported to Jessep by an influential man from a lineage named Satele, on whose land a river flows through the Barok village of Kanam. This man summed up the way land transactions were carried out in exchange for the sacrifice of children upon the death of their father and pointed to the four sections of the river that his own lineage had formerly given to four other lineages in this type of transaction.…”

“…The story of Nduara thus enables the Adjirab to affirm at the same time their particularities and their oneness with the local cultures. Lastly, another commentary, 28 less common it is true, reveals that Nduara had the idea of honoring his adje by building an overhanging roof. He simply added this new structure onto the existing building.…”

“…28 Lacking the resources to ensure the economic development of the whole country, according to the Sulka leader of the movement, this government is forced to restrict aid to those localities to which it feels it is under obligation: for example the home locality of the Kivung, from which it has received earlier material support. 29 This government aid -which would be no more than a reciprocal contribution to counterbalance the sums paid in by the movement members -should take the form of roads, airports, bridges, stores, office buildings and other installations.…”

“…Tony Swain has defined the Warlpiri's idea of the Christian God as the 'ghost of space': he opposes the Aboriginal notion of place to that of space, an encompassing notion alien to the Aboriginal mind, which thinks in terms of relations between places but not of a spatial continuum encompassing them. 28 He shows that this notion was more or less included in, or rather seen as assimilable to, an alliance between Dreamtime Beings and space, between the Warlpiri and God. The aim of this alliance was for God to 'learn the Warlpiri's language' (from the translation of the Bible into Warlpiri) so that he would understand and recognise their relation to place, thus enabling his representatives on earth -especially the governments -to do likewise and give Aboriginals back their ancestral lands.…”

“…These converging and mutually reinforcing behaviours and institutions, all of which come into play in intergroup ceremonial exchanges, constitute a social logic specific to the Highlands. 28 Activation of the principles of social organisation discussed above does not always yield as tightly woven, coherent a fabric of personal and group relations as that found in the Big Men Societies in the western part of the region (the most representative), but everywhere: 1) compensations for life and death generally take the form of gifts of wealth; 2) political power is based on skill in negotiating peace, organising intergroup exchanges and building up a following of dependents; and 3) the pig exchanges mobilise the minds, energies and hopes of individuals and groups alike.…”