Kin and Kina: A Study of Emerging Inequalities in a Rural Lowland Society in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

The thesis describes processes of social and economic change in a lowlands village in Papua New Guinea. The study focuses on the interface between the 'modern' and 'traditional' economies, and is based on an 18 month intensive fieldstudy in 1988/89 of a Wosera village in the East Sepik Province. Data reveal an economic and social division between a poor group of immigrant households (residing in the village for less than 4 generations), and a wealthier group of established households, which have resided in the village for more than 6 generations. Immigrant households hold fewer resources (land, sago and permanent cash crops) than established households. Indigenous exchange networks play a fundamental role in maintaining and accentuating social and economic inequalities. Because immigrant households have few resources, they must enter asymmetrical exchange relationships with resource-rich established lineages for access to the means of production. Through indigenous exchange, immigrants are net givers of wealth and labour, whilst established households are net receivers. Established households are able to supplement their levels of disposable cash incomes by re-directing cash from the indigenous exchange economy to the market economy.