Leadership in Melanesia

Chowning, Ann

doi:10.1080/00223347908572366

Cited by 49 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Furthermore, the non-compliance with rules and regulations (not carrying out penalties) in PA0 could also have roots in some aspects of PNG's traditional style of leadership or 'big man' system, where the title of 'big man' is earned rather than inherited. As such, the 'big man' has no absolute authority to punish the follower who defaults (Sahlins, 1963;Chowning, 1979;Savery and Swain, 1985). The finding about the positive effect of role culture from these two case studies is consistent with the explanation from developing countries.…”

Section: Four Ideologies Of Culturesupporting

confidence: 74%

The Role of Culture in Development Management: Case Studies of a Public and a Private Sector Organization in Papua New Guinea

Kepui¹,

Chamala

Shadur

1996

Sust. Dev.

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Section: Four Ideologies Of Culturesupporting

confidence: 74%

The Role of Culture in Development Management: Case Studies of a Public and a Private Sector Organization in Papua New Guinea

Kepui¹,

Chamala

Shadur

1996

Sust. Dev.

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“…Even those who in some respects qualified for an alternative designation, such as 'chief) or 'elder', were often said to share many of the diagnostic features of the ubiquitous 'big man'. But such ubiquity is no longer tenable numerous commentators (Allen 1984b, Chowning 1979, Douglas 1979, Feil 1987:92-102, Godelier 1991, Godelier and Strathern 1991and Lindstrom 1981 have highlighted the frequency with which Melanesian leaders display features that do not conform to the 'big-man' stereotype. On the contrary, true 'big-man' style leadership is today generally deemed to be found only in those Melanesian societies that occupy an extreme end of a continuum the other end of which is occupied by those societies I have characterised as centripetal and conservative, and which also commonly have both elementary kinship systems and RHS type male cults.…”

Section: Conservative Versus Risk-taking Type Leadersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Male Cults Revisited: The Politics of Blood Versus Semen

Allen

1998

Oceania

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In this article I explore some major differences between male initiations in Melanesia that I ignored in my earlier study. In particular, I focus on the differential emphasis that was placed on blood‐letting as against semeningesting as the key means whereby boys were believed to be transformed into men. In the case of the blood‐letting rites men seemingly sought both to appropriate to themselves the positively valued capacity of women to give birth to children and to protect themselves from women's negative ability to cause either death or destruction through menstruation, sexual intercourse or witchcraft. By contrast, in the semeningesting rites the properties of women that the men seemed most concerned to appropriate focused on their capacities to receive semen in the act of sexual intercourse and to give milk in the nurturant context. Such major cult differences were, I suggest, directly associated with parallel differences in four inter‐related sets of variables; the form of marital exchange (direct as against indirect), the predominant variety of social relations (centripetal as against centrifugal), the prevailing form of leadership (conservative as against entrepreneurial) and, finally and most importantly, differences in gender relations, especially concerning the nature of male dependency on female cooperation in attaining specifically male goals.

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“…The main principle can be summarized as "giving more brings greater prestige to the giver". Becoming a Big Man requires help provided by both men and women, who produce and give to the chosen person resources such as crops and pigs (Chowning 1979, Lepowsky 1990, Lutkehaus and Roscoe 1995. From 1978 to 1999, 16 family units (couples and children) migrated to Vanua Lava from a small and overpopulated island, Mota Lava, 12 km distant (Fig.…”

Section: Socioeconomic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of farmer social status and plant biocultural value on seed circulation networks in Vanuatu

Thomas¹,

Caillon²

2016

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Seed circulation among farmers, which is embedded in composite social networks, is a key process in the dynamics of seed systems that shape crop diversity. We analyzed the daily circulation of biological objects, i.e., cultivated plants (31 species, 284 landraces), within a community of first-generation migrants (16 households, 30 persons) living on the island of Vanua Lava in the South Pacific archipelago nation of Vanuatu. By combining participant observation, ethnobiological inventories, and social network analysis, we investigated how farmer social status and plant biocultural value affect plant circulation. Plant biocultural value was estimated by referring to their local classification according to uses, cultivation practices, growing environments, and biological properties. An aggregate plant circulation network (577 events) and three subnetworks (i.e., for starchy, side dish, or snack food categories) sharing the same 30 nodes were analyzed using exponential random graph models. Evidence that farmer social status influences the patterns of plant circulation was found through the distribution of structural parameters of the network, including: dyadic reciprocity; in-degree, out-degree, and their correlation; triadic cycling; and transitivity. At the scale of the aggregate network, direct or indirect reciprocity was not observed. Instead, a high out-degree (i.e., being a more frequent giver) and a negative correlation between in-degree and out-degree both confer prestige and reinforce hierarchy. These results suggest that some of the social dynamics of the Melanesian-type Big Man political system may persist, even though the system itself no longer exists in traditional form. Moreover, based on our comparative analysis of the three subnetworks, farmer social status appears to influence greatly the circulation of plants with high biocultural value while having little influence on plants with low biocultural value. Farmer social status and plant biocultural value (following their local classification) are important factors for understanding the social rules shaping seed circulation.

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Leadership in Melanesia

Cited by 49 publications

References 10 publications

The Role of Culture in Development Management: Case Studies of a Public and a Private Sector Organization in Papua New Guinea

The Role of Culture in Development Management: Case Studies of a Public and a Private Sector Organization in Papua New Guinea

Male Cults Revisited: The Politics of Blood Versus Semen

Effects of farmer social status and plant biocultural value on seed circulation networks in Vanuatu

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