Marketplaces and Morality in Papua New Guinea: Place, Personhood and Exchange

Abstract

In Papua New Guinea (PNG) more rural people, and especially rural women, earn cash from selling in marketplaces than from any other source. PNG's marketplaces are critical for food security, and for the redistribution of wealth. They are also important meeting places where people gather to see friends, hear the latest news, attend court cases, play cards and be entertained. This introduction to this special issue on ‘Marketplaces and Morality in Papua New Guinea’ reviews the history of PNG marketplaces and their contemporary forms. It charts their transformation from introduced colonial spaces into dynamic Melanesian places, which, as places to buy, sell and socialise, have become pervasive institutions in the lives of both urban and rural Papua New Guineans, and places where people interact with both known and unknown others. From this, marketplaces emerge as important spaces of moral evaluation and contestation in relation to what constitutes morally acceptable exchange and what practices are acceptable in these places. The paper demonstrates that exchange in the marketplace should not be reduced to commodity transactions, and questions assumptions about the types of people marketplaces create. It argues that the country's marketplaces are productive sites to consider ideas of exchange, social relations and social personhood, and that there is a critical need to understand the concrete details of what takes place in contemporary marketplaces.

Marketplaces as sites for the development‐adaptation‐disaster trifecta: Insights from Vanuatu

“…Despite primarily being sites for generating income and wealth (Hinrichs, 2000;Barrett, 2008), the benefits that marketplaces offer can also become the platform from which communities re-establish livelihoods (Neef et al, 2018) and mitigate the risks that climate change and disasters pose to livelihoods and financial security (Bapna et al, 2009). Marketplaces can boost overall resilience by being a space for new social connections, connecting urban and rural places, enabling co-learning (Brookfield et al, 1969;Busse and Sharp, 2019), improving food security (Timmer, 2017) and supporting inclusive gender equitable growth (Faveri et al, 2015). We will further explore below how marketplacesthrough boosting resilience and developing the capabilities of women market vendors are an important space for generating the trifecta of outcomes.…”

“…Markets, in a broader sense, are traditionally linked with development aspirations related to food security, wealth redistribution and pathways out of poverty (Kuhl, 2018;Busse and Sharp, 2019). Studies are, however, beginning to highlight the importance of improved and fair market access for building resilience and adaptive capacity 1 (Bapna et al, 2009;Feeny et al, 2013;Belay et al, 2017;Kuhl, 2018), although detailed case studies are lacking.…”

“…Kuhl (2018), however, focuses on a market system approach, which involves connecting the poor to markets (as an abstract notion) and using the private sector to encourage poverty reduction and economic growth. Our study focuses on markets as placesthat is, a geographical place where gatherings focused on trade take place, and a set of localised social institutions, actors, organisations, transactions, trade practices, products and cultural meanings exist (Busse and Sharp, 2019). We undertake a critical exploration of the way that marketplaces in Vanuatu, which are traditionally linked to development goals, may also increase resilience and adaptive capacity in the face of climate change and disasters.…”

Gendered differences in crop diversity choices: A case study from Papua New Guinea

“…PNG is a fitting country for such a study: rich in agrobiodiversity, it is considered a key area for in situ conservation but also faces rapid changes in economics, social values, climate, and demographics that may threaten this diversity, with implications for local culture as well as global crop conservation. Moreover, PNG has a largely patriarchal culture wherein gender pervades many aspects of both agriculture and the economy (Sillitoe 1981; Busse and Sharp 2019). Its agricultural productivity remains below potential in many sectors, and diets tend to be low in diversity, with serious consequences for nutrition and food security (IFPRI 2016;Hurney 2017).…”

“…Amid these challenges, agricultural extension services have struggled to properly serve the female population (Mikhailovich et al 2016). Recent work has highlighted how PNG society continues to change rapidly, sometimes overturning the norms and customs documented in prior research (Busse and Sharp 2019;Curry et al 2019).…”