The Institutional context for Melanesian sociality: paper given at European Society for Oceanists (EsfO) conference, Brussels

Description

There has been very little ethnographic work with institutions in Melanesia; and often what exists tends to approach the institution as a supplement to 'cultural life' or 'sociality' as it already exists. There is an assumption that institutions must be understood in the context of Melanesian societies; indeed, much of the literature considers the response of 'local' peoples and cosmologies to these 'introduced' organisational bodies. Through a reflection on ethnographic work in a Papua New Guinean prison carried out in the 1990s, and through new work with Papua New Guinean expatriates in Western Australia, I aim to reverse the usual trajectory of anthropological analysis and description and to propose an examination of the institutional context for Melanesian sociality.

Period	2015
Event title	The Institutional context for Melanesian sociality: paper given at European Society for Oceanists (EsfO) conference, Brussels
Event type	Other
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