The New Pearlshells: Aspects of money and meaning in Anganen exchange

Nihill, Michael

doi:10.1080/03149098909508500

Cited by 24 publications

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“…This is perhaps best illustrated by how cash has been incorporated into indigenous social and political systems in PNG (Boyd, 1985;Clark, 1989;Maclean, 1989;Nihill, 1989). Cash is widely used as a gift item in indigenous exchanges associated with marriage and mortuary exchanges in Melanesia.…”

Section: Wage Labour and Village Tradestoresmentioning

confidence: 98%

Doing “Business” in Papua New Guinea: The Social Embeddedness of Small Business Enterprises

Curry

2005

Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship

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Small-scale village businesses in PNG often become insolvent because the revenue, stock and cash normally earmarked for input costs are frequently redirected to the indigenous non-market economy. Many businesses are established primarily for facilitating gift exchange and enhancing the social status of their proprietors and investors, with the profit motive subordinated to these objectives. The important role of village enterprises in meeting indigenous socio-economic objectives means they are rarely profitable and must be subsidised with remittances from migrants or the income from cash cropping. These issues are explored in relation to wage labour, tradestores and cash cropping. A typology of enterprises is presented to illustrate how the characteristics of particular types of enterprises determine whether or not they will be able to accommodate the demands of the indigenous socio-economy while remaining solvent. Typically, businesses which require costly inputs and loan repayments for their ongoing operations are less likely to be sustainable.SOMMAIRE. Les entreprises villageoises à petite échelle en Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée deviennent souvent insolvables parce que le revenu, l'inventaire et l'encaisse affectés aux coûts à l'entrée sont souvent réacheminés vers l'économie planifiée indigène. De nombreuses entreprises sont établies surtout pour faciliter l'échange de dons et pour mettre en valeur la position sociale de leurs propriétaires et investisseurs, et la motivation par le profit est subordonnée à ces objectifs. Le rôle important des entreprises villageoises dans la réalisation des objectifs socio-économiques indigènes les rend rarement rentables: elles doivent donc être subventionnées par les remises des migrants ou les revenus de la culture commerciale. Ces problèmes sont explorés par rapport au travail salarié, aux magasins de commerce, et à la culture commerciale. On présente une typologie des entreprises qui illustre la façon dont les caractéristiques de certains types d'entreprises déterminent si elles pourront s'adapter aux demandes de l'économie sociale indigène tout en demeurant solvables. D'une manière typique, les entreprises qui exigent pour leurs activités des entrées et des remboursements de prêts coûteux ont moins de chances d'être durables. IntroductionIn the late 1980s when I first began working in rural villages in Papua New Guinea (PNG) I was struck by the very small quantities of store goods purchased by rural villagers. Laundry detergents, for example, were commonly bought in small sachets rather than in 750 g or 1 kg cartons. I assumed that the purchase of small quantities of store goods reflected the poverty of rural villagers. I also believed these buyers were paying a higher price than necessary for their consumption of these goods (more frequent trips to stores and no discount benefit from bulk buying). I was wrong on both counts because I did not reckon on the influence of the indigenous exchange economy on purchasing decisions.A villager returning home with a 1 kg carton of l...

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Section: Wage Labour and Village Tradestoresmentioning

confidence: 98%

Doing “Business” in Papua New Guinea: The Social Embeddedness of Small Business Enterprises

Curry

2005

Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship

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“…Rather than despondency, it is a forward action on modernity, guided by the assurance the Enga will be able to harness the good things of Europeans to the development of their own existence. "Develop-man" is the neo-Melanesian term for development; and it would not be wrong to repidginize it back to English as "the development of man," since the project it refers to is the use of foreign wealth in the expansion of feasting, politicking, subsidizing kinship, and other activities that make up the local conception of a human existence (Nihill 1989). This is what the working and warrior youth of Enga are urged to carry on.…”

Section: The Indigenization Of Modernitymentioning

confidence: 99%

What is Anthropological Enlightenment? Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century

Sahlins

1999

Annu. Rev. Anthropol.

253

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n Abstract A broad reflection on some of the major surprises to anthropological theory occasioned by the history, and in a number of instances the tenacity, of indigenous cultures in the twentieth century. We are not leaving the century with the same ideas that got us there. Contrary to the inherited notions of progressive development, whether of the political left or right, the surviving victims of imperial capitalism neither became all alike nor just like us. Contrary to the "despondency theory" of mid-century, the logical and historical precursor of dependency theory, surviving indigenous peoples aim to take cultural responsibility for what has been done to them. Across large parts of northern North America, even hunters and gatherers live, largely by hunting and gathering. The Eskimo are still there, and they are still Eskimo. Around the world the peoples give the lie to received theoretical oppositions between tradition and change, indigenous culture and modernity, townsmen and tribesmen, and other clichés of the received anthropological wisdom. Reports of the death of indigenous cultures-as of the demise of anthropology-have been exaggerated.

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“…13 O Mendi estava certamente invocando uma distinção crítica para a operação da vida sociocerimonial, comum nas terras altas da Nova Guiné, entre desti-nar as coisas à troca social e consumir as coisas dentro da própria família. O contraste entre as figuras da troca e do consumo pode ser ainda correlacionado com a distinção entre homens e mulheres (Strathern 1979;Nihill 1989). …”

Section: Notasunclassified

O "pessimismo sentimental" e a experiência etnográfica: por que a cultura não é um "objeto" em via de extinção (parte I)

Sahlins¹

1997

Mana

265

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A "cultura" não tem a menor possibilidade de desaparecer enquanto objeto principal da antropologia -tampouco, aliás, enquanto preocupação fundamental de todas as ciências humanas. É claro que ela pode perder, e já perdeu, parte das qualidades de substância natural adquiridas durante o longo período em que a antropologia andou fascinada pelo positivismo. Mas a "cultura" não pode ser abandonada, sob pena de deixarmos de compreender o fenômeno único que ela nomeia e distingue: a organização da experiência e da ação humanas por meios simbólicos. As pessoas, relações e coisas que povoam a existência humana manifestamse essencialmente como valores e significados -significados que não podem ser determinados a partir de propriedades biológicas ou físicas. Como costumava dizer meu professor Leslie White, um macaco não é capaz de apreciar a diferença entre água benta e água destilada -pois não há diferença, quimicamente falando. Nenhum outro animal, tampouco, organiza os fundamentos afetivos, as atrações e repulsões de suas estratégias reprodutivas a partir de significados, sejam eles conceitos socialmente contingentes de beleza ou noções historicamente variáveis de moralidade sexual.Essa ordenação (e desordenação) do mundo em termos simbólicos, essa cultura é a capacidade singular da espécie humana. Propor que o estudo da cultura seja banido das ciências humanas, sob o argumentopor exemplo -de que esse conceito está politicamente manchado por um passado duvidoso, seria uma espécie de suicídio epistemológico. A cultura em seu sentido antropológico foi capaz de transcender a noção de refinamento intelectual (aquela "cultura" que tem como adjetivo "culto", e não "cultural", e que ainda é uma acepção comum do termo) da qual descende; foi, igualmente, capaz de se afastar das idéias progressivistas de "civilização" a que já esteve tão ligada (como em E.B. Tylor). Por isso, podemos estar certos de que ela também irá sobreviver às atuais

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The New Pearlshells: Aspects of money and meaning in Anganen exchange

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Doing “Business” in Papua New Guinea: The Social Embeddedness of Small Business Enterprises

Doing “Business” in Papua New Guinea: The Social Embeddedness of Small Business Enterprises

What is Anthropological Enlightenment? Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century

O "pessimismo sentimental" e a experiência etnográfica: por que a cultura não é um "objeto" em via de extinção (parte I)

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