THE I CREDIBLE SHRI KING MEN: Male ideology
and development in a Southern Highlands society
Jeffrey Clark
INfRODUCITO
This article is concerned to explain a particular manifestation of social change among
the Wiru of the Southern Highlands: a belief held by men that since pacification they
have been shrinking in size. In order to do this. the historical background of
development and missionization must be considered and interpreted. 1be account
which follows is influenced by Sahlins's Historical metaphors and mythical realities
(1981). in which a central Hawaiian myth is seen to be linked. through its ritual reenactment. to the reproduction of Hawaiian society. My aims are not so allencompassing; rather, I isolate dominant themes underlying Wiru society which
gave a certain dimension to social process. I discuss notions of the body. derived
as they are from procreation beliefs, which underpin male-female relation hips and
provide the impetus for the exchange system, and I also consider a logic which
relates Wiru society to those with which it has mythical and economic connections.
For heuristic purposes I will label these societies the 'outside world'.
Gender constructs are related to notions of the body and. as I will argue, are
refracted into the logic linking Wiru society to the outside world. This complex
interplay is. then, part of an overarching cosmology which came to influence the
interpretation of development and Christianity. It was out of this interaction that
beliefs about shrinking emerged, as the colonial experience - a part of the outside
world - encouraged feelings of dependence and inferiority, feelings which were
expressed through the metaphor of the body.
In the pre-colonial era the outside world was the Kewa and Imbonggu
speaking areas of the Southern Highlands, a district which in tenns of Highlands
history was the last to be controlled and developed. Today the relationship of the
Southern Highlands to the Highlands in general parallels that between prepacification Wiru society and the outside world: the Highlands was and is regarded
as a wealthier and less backward area. This is because the Kewa-Irnbonggu area
was intersected by the major trade route into the Highlands from the Papuan coast
and controlled the access by Wiru to valuables such as pcarlshells and steel.
Canberra Anthropology 12(1&2) 1989:120-143. Special Volume Culture and development in Papua New Guinea.
JEFFREY ClARK 121
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Wiru people inhabit Pangia di trict in the eastern part of the Southern
Highlands Province. They number about 20,000 and live on a plateau fanning out
to the south and east of Mt Ialibu, the majority living in settlements between 4,500
and 5,500 feet above sea-level. Takuru, the fieldwork site, is located in the middle
of Pangia district It has a population of about 400 people distributed throughout
five hamlets, four of which belong to the Wesleyan church, the exception being a
hamlet of the Seventh Day Adventist denomination. Wiru practise a semi-intensive
shifting agriculture, with sweet potato being the prime cultigen and taro as a minor
staple. In common with other Highlanders, pig husbandry i a major concern and
large numbers of these beasts are killed in periodic pig festivals, formerly associated
with spirit-cult activity.
The location of Pangia is such that it was one of the last districts in the
Southern Highlands to be pacified. The first European patrol entered Pangia in
1934 but it was not until August 1961, when a patrol post was established, that
Wiru experienced effective administration and missionization. As a result of the
relative recency of pacification, when the area was finally derestricted the missions
were well organized and keen to enter one of the last remaining outposts of
paganism. The Wiru experience of missions was vastly different from many other
Highlanders in that they faced intensive proselytization across the board and not as
single settlements selected, for example, for their proximity to mission stations.
Missionaries and native evangelists operated throughout the length and breadth of
Pangia, and Wiru society quickly became known as one of the more Christian in the
Southern Highlands.
The timing of derestriction meant that Wiru received attention not only from
the the mainline missions (Catholic and Lutheran) but also from the more recently
arrived fundamentalist and evangelical groups and sects. The influx of missions
was practically an onslaught, given the number of missions competing for souls and
the large area they covered in proselytizing patrols. While missionaries were often
readily accepted in the Southern Highlands, 1 Pangia's colonial history and the
nature of Wiru cosmology meant that Wiru experienced and responded to
Christianity in a particular way (Dark. 1985).
Wiru faced not only intense proselytization but also a concerted development
programme by the _'_ustralian administration, a this quote from a patrol report on
how to proceed with development indicates:
A well planned fullscale assault, with clear policy as to crops and full
support from the Agricultural Department is the answer. I believe
anything falling short of this is a waste of time [and] will result in a
bitty, scratchy development ... and eventually fall flat on its face; ... if
we want to show real headway in this area we have the perfect
122 CANBERRA ANrnROPOLOGY 12 (I & 2) 1989
opportunity now. With a positive economic development plan ... there
is no reason why Wiru should not surge ahead (pangia Patrol Report
no. 3. 1961-62).
This programme involved a significant amount of coercion on the pan of
kiaps (the Melanesian Pidgin tenn for patrol officer) but Wiru themselves were keen
for development and what they imagined to be its benefits:
... there is a universal cry for money which is found from one side of
the division to the other ... the realization of the value of money has
produced almost a preoccupation ... complaining about their Umited
access to economic advancement (earning money). The people are more
than willing to allow a European. be he a Mission representative or the
lauded, almost mythological "Company Master" to establish himself
permanently amongst them (pangia Patrol Report no. 6. 1963-64).
By 1973 Pangia was producing more coffee than the rest of the Southern
Highlands put together and is today one of its wealthier districts in tenns of money
income. a fact confinned by the high nutritional status of Wiru children, whose diets
can be more often supplemented by tinned fish and rice. 2
The first decade of colonialism and missionization was for Wiru of a different
order and scale to that experienced by most other Highlanders (for background to
this and following claims, see Dark 1985 and A. Strathern 1984). This period of
concentrated development was not without its consequences. as even the
administration recognized:
... the change and development of the area has been rapid and very
satisfactory for a short space of time. 0 doubt there have been quite
remarkable stresses and strains to the society unknown. unnoticed by us
... bordering on the traumatic (pangia Patrol Report no. 5, 1969-70).
There was also extensive outmigration on the Highlands Labour Scheme (HLS).
p to 50 per cent of the total male workforce was missing in the peak. years of this
scheme. during which 60 per cent of the married male workforce was absent. This
had drastic effects on the local political economy, as did the introduction of new
positions of status - councillor. village policeman, pastor, etc. - and the attenuation,
because of the requirements oflabour-intensive development projects, of ceremonial
exchanges associated with cyclical pig festivals and death compensation. One
manifestation of the 'stresses and strains' of development is that men believe
themselves to be physically shrinking. This conviction, and its ideological
ramifications, is the subject of this paper.
JEfFREY ClARK 123
THE BODY ANDSOOAL CHANGE
It may seem unusual to preface a discussion of some consequences of
colonialism with a brief summary of Wiru procreation beliefs, yet Wiru notions of
the body provide a vivid idiom for perceptions of change. Men initiate foetal
development but women are responsible for its growth and nuture; it is said that the
women do all the 'hard work'. The father gives the yomini or soul to a child. It is
the mother, however, who is credited with creating the body - the bones, blood,
flesh and organs - of the child. A Wiru father's substance affects the shape of the
developing foetus but it does not contribute to the actual growth, nurturance or
physical constitution of the body. Although women create bodies, men give
individuality to appearance, especially remarked upon in reference to noses and
calves of the legs, as well as to personal ability and intelligence.
Women reproduce out of female substance a succession of physical bodies,
and these in tum receive the impress of male individuality. The latter is on the
'outside' of the body, which is why the skin. dress and decorations are important
markers of male identity, as they are elsewhere in the Highlands. The collective
imprinting done by men on bodies reproduces agnatic groups. While men are
responsible for clan continuity it is women and exchanges of the affinal-maternal
nexus that help to reproduce society and the conditions necessary for its existence:
children, food and wealth.
Exchange in Wiru society is strongly oriented to transactions between a man
and his mother's brothers and wife's brothers, for the creation and nurture of his
body and his children's bodies respectively. Wiru exchanges which celebrate the
life cycle are not overtly political and involve no notion of increment; the logic is one
of paying off a debt. An aspiring or recognized big-man may give body payments
which are larger than usual but, apart from warfare, a major context for reinforcing
status is that of death compensation made to allies or non-agnate kinsmen. This
involves gifts of large numbers of pearlshells. Political relations between different
settlements are maintained or created by gifts of pork given by holders of pig-kills,
and again these are not competitive in the sense of involving increment on returned
gifts.
Ceremonial pig-killing often accompanied cult activities, and these were
occasions in which many of these gifts were made. sometimes fonnally. There was
a strong connectio:. between cults concerned with health, growth and fertility and
the presentation of these gifts, a connection which has not been entirely lost even
with the arrival of missions. Present-day pig festivals are often arranged to coincide
(but seldom do) with events in the Christian calendar such as Christmas. Easter, the
completion of church construction, or are even initiated by the fear of the end of the
world, which encourages people to finish their exchange obligations before dying.
124 CANBERRA ANTIIROPOLOGY 12 (1 & 2) 1989
Before considering the reasons for men's diminution, it is first necessary to
demonstrate that, for Wiru, it is not unusual for change to have bodily referent. In
1963 a wave of revival activity spread through settlemen..s dominated by the
fundamentalist Evangelical Bible and Wesleyan Missions, and involved over 2000
Wiru at the height of its influence. This was a situation viewed with some alarm by
an administration worried about the effects of possible cargo-cult activity on
development plans. The revival in Takuru appears to have been characterized by
two distinct phases which, borrowing mission terminology, I hall call 'conviction'
and 'liberation' (Ridgeway 1976). During conviction it was reported that people
were hitting themselves, climbing all over churches, and rolling around the ground
in frenzies; one unfortunate had to have his eye removed after hitting himself on the
head, and in Takuru a man, convinced he could fly, jumped off the church roof and
broke his legs. Mi sion accounts also describe visions of the cross, heaven, and
Jesus, violent head-twisting, vomiting, hanging upside down from church rafters,
and people falling unconscious:
There was agony of soul manifested by lying on the floor while the
body writhed and twisted in seeming torments while the individual
prayed in soul travail (Harvey 1973: 190).
The state of conviction was brought on, over time, by many sessions of
emphatic singing and praying, fasting and self-directed violent behaviour. During
thi period the missions worked on the suggestibility of the people by instilling
uncertainty about traditional beliefs and practice . The whole traditional moral
scheme was attacked, seen as unworthy and finally rejected in favour of the
alternative offered - Qui tianity. This was undoubtedly a traumatic time for many
Wiru, but I would not wish to minimize the importance of the fact that Wiru wanted
to change, to become 1ike whites' (see A. Strathern 1984: 42), yet were without
any way of achieving this transformation. This undoubtedly contributed to the
trauma as much as the shaking of the world in which Wiru lived.
There was a rejection of the old, but exhaustion, hunger and the repetition of
hymns, sennons and prayers created a susceptible psychological tate for the
experience of group and individual sin (see Robin 1982: 330), further exaggerated
by public confessions and self-condemnation. J am not equipped to explain the
psychological reasons underlying so-called hysterical behaviour, but the argument
that it is a relea e from mental stress and bodily discomfort through a loss of
phy kal and cognitive control (Worsley 1957: 256-258) needs to take into account
the social dimension of conviction behaviour and the fact that Wiru were not
passively acting out psychological disturbances.
Psychological explanations aside, it is this dimension of revivals that I wish
to examine, in particlar that the body is worked on to effect a transformation in the
1EFFREY ClARK 125
individual. Read suggests that in the Highlands a 'preoccupation with the body' is
to do with a lack of distinction between a man's psychic and physical self, such that
the body can be a metaphor for a perception of the self (1955: 268). This
preoccupation is related to my discussion of revivals. The body can be used as a
metaphor or trope for change, as in the example of men shrinking, but during
revivals it may be being used as a vehicle for change. The mission emphasis on a
complete transformation in the beliefs and behaviour of individuals led - because of
the strong connection between the psychic and physical self - to people transforming
themselves through 'renewing' their own bodies by acts of self-directed violence
(destroying their pagan bodies) in attempts to make a Christian body.3
The second phase of the revival. liberation (a descriptive not theological
term), occurred when this renewal took place. At this stage it is the group and not
the individual which becomes the focus of revival activity. Liberation involved the
co-ordination, by separate groups of men and women, of rhythmic jumping in
church, accompanied by expressions of relief and joy and cries of thanks. The
movement from independent to collective action mirrors the submission of
individuality to social interests, and points to the re-emergence of society out of a
period of uncertainty. The unco-ordinated individual body symbolized this
uncertainty, while the rhythmic jumping signified the return of the body social (cf.
Douglas 1973: ch. 5). That men perceive themselves as smaller is related to the
same complex of ideas about the body that permeated the Takuru revival (for a fuller
description of this event see Cark 1985: ch. 4a). It is now time to look at shrinking
in more detail, in particular by examining some of the political and ideological
consequences of development and Christianity.
DEVELOPMENT. POLmcs AND SHRINKING
The colonial experience was such that big-men in Pangia did not have the
opportunity to engage in exchange or to monopolize the wealth items used in
exchange, especially bridewealth, to support their statuses as they did in other
Highlands areas. The HLS and labour-intensive development projects overcame the
incentive to surplus production (see Sahlins 1972: chs 2 and 3, passim), and the
traditional political economy went into a temporary decline during the first decade of
colonialism. It is no surprise that the incidence of temporary famines in Pangia
appears to have draT"1atically risen after pacification (see Cark 1985: 148-151).
Big-men attempted to reinforce their status and singularity not by increasing
the frequency of exchange and attempting to dominate control over the valuables
used in it but by competing for introduced positions of status and authority such as
councillor, pastor or village constable. The collective social context in which the
big-men attempted to maintain their status was also affected by colonialism.
126 CANBERRA A.1'ffifROPOLOGY 12 (I & 2) 1989
Occasions for group display and status enhancement, such as pig festivals, became
less frequent due to several factors, including some previously mentioned:
(l) the absence of men on the HLS;
(2) administration and mission demands on labour, which resulted in a decline in
garden worle and hence pig production;
(3) the abandonment of cults by mi sion decree. removing another incentive for
surplus production; and
(4) administration control over the timing of ceremonial exchanges which might
otherwise interfere with development schemes such as roadbuilding.
The attraction of new status positions was not solely determined by
administration demand on time and labour, or by the fact that recourse to tradition
was not a viable an alternative for Wiru big-men as it was for their Melpa
counterpans, for example (A. Strathem 1978). Partly this wa because Wiru,
unlike Melpa, were much more controlled by an administration which had a definite
hort-term development strategy, enthusiastic personnel, consi tency in staffing,
effective political control over the area, and which was not above compelling
submis ion to its demands (see A. Strathem 1984: ch. 2). It was this control which
affected gender relations. Another factor was that the non-competitive nature of
Wiru ceremonial exchange limited its efflorescence under colonialism as, unlike
moka, it did not readily lend itself to manipulation as an arena in which men could
compete for status using introduced or traditional wealth while remaining more or
less independent of colonial constraints.4
Wiru perceptions of whites a powerful and supernatural (see Carle n.d.b)
meant that their response to colonialism included an element of fear and confusion
over what these strange creatures required of them. onetheless, as with revivals,
this response was not passive. Men actively sought tatuses offered by the colonial
authorities. Wiru have a history of cultural innovation and readily accept new ideas
and resource . It was not only a lack of alternatives which forced Wiru big-men to
compete for positions such as councillor; the attractiveness of these new statuses
was that they were a sodated with the outside world.
Some upport for these claims is found in the bosboi (boss boy) phenomenon
which swept through the district many years before the e tablishment of Pangia
station. Many Wiru men visited Ialibu station in the mid to late 1950 and orne
were appointed, along with men contracted on patrols into Pangia, as village
constables to pave the way for control and development. It appears that some men
took on bosboi status in emulation of those appointed by the administration, while
others were appointed externally by various missions, but most had exaggerated
JEFFREY CLARK 11:7
views of their own importance, with some individuals having disproportionate
power because of their connection with the outside:
... there were many men [in Pangia] holding cane walking-sticks and
introducing themselves as 'OOsOOi'. It is not known how, when, where,
or why this habit started. This practice had never been seen by either of
the patrol's officer [although] it is believed the practice is used in other
of the Highlands Districts. Inquiries showed that throughout the area
some of the persons calling themselve 'bosboi' had been 'appointed' by
each of the ... missions. Some had been 'appointed' by members of the
con tabulary [and by] village constables ... Some had been 'appointed'
by other '00 boi' and some had 'appointed' themselves. Very few
claimed to have been appointed by Administration officers.
The practice ... has assumed ridiculous proportions. At [one
village] there were 14 persons carrying cane walking-sticks and calling
themselves 'OOsboi' (Ialibu Patrol Report no. 2, 1958-59).
The bosboi phenomenon is also reported among the neighbouring Kewa for
the same year (Josephides 1985: 71), particularly those Kewa in areas remote from
administration control. 5 Clearly, my explanation of this phenomenon cannot be
reduced to one solely in tenns of a particular Wiru view of the outside, although I
maintain this was a factor affecting the interpretation of, and response to,
colonialism.
The popularity and self-importance of the bosboi position, and its incidence
in Pangia, came from this outside connection, which imbued the status with a
special attractiveness and power as well as making men susceptible to its perceived
advantages. The argument. then, is that men were predisposed to introduced
statuses rather than merely viewing them as alternatives to be competed for during
the period in which ceremonial exchanges declined in frequency and size.
The fact that more traditional means were not used to bolster male and group
status was not, however, without its effects. Takuruans say that to engage in
development is to 'act like a woman', that is, they must work hard, be nonaggressive and obey an external power beyond their contro1. 6 Men. in particular the
older ones, feel that their masculinity has been threatened, and there is a suggestion
of emasculation in statements that men have been 'shrinking' since pacification.
The expression used to refer to this is ali koloi toko: 'man, to not spread out from
one stem'; this employs a verb also used to describe the growth pattern of a
cordyline plant. 1:- ~onnants say that men are getting smaller - they are 1ike rats'7 because of two factors:
1. Soil has deteriorated and less food is produced; men eat less and are therefore
shrinking.
128 CANBERRA A.NTIlROPOLOOY 12 (1 & 2) 1989
2. Missions made men put on clothes so that their skin and traditional dre
not be seen.
could
Takuruans much prefer peace and development to their pre-colonial situation,
but men are aware that a price has been paid for their complicity with and
subservience to the administration and mission, complicity and subservience in
which their powerlessness was a factor. Wiru tell stories of intimidation by kiaps,
including dogs being set on men if they were reticent in agreeing to development
initiatives (such as land alienation), as well as men being beaten. threatened or jailed
to extract their compliance, or to punish non-compliance.
Christianity. as an ideology stressing obeisance, meekness. non-violence. a
wider brotherhood, and so forth, has contributed to this perception men have of
their changing nature, which, although behavioural, is explained in physical tenns.
It is worth noting that many of these Christian qualities are seen by men as attributes
of women. Shrinking is also related to ageing, a process in which men, because of
the weakening effects of sexual intercourse, become less male the longer they are
married. A different verb is used to refer to shrinking through age, idipoko, which
is not surprising as the use of koIoi toko in reference to men is a recent one. It is
likely that the meanings of both verbs resonate together, and informants did translate
both into English as 'shrinking'. That women can contribute to male shrinking
through long-tenn physical contact· coition is polluting - is significant, as we hall
see below.
It would be useful at this point to discuss money, which. as a valuable, has
probably the greatest impact on changing male ideology and per pective on
women. A proposition I consider is that women have come to be assigned an
economic value as wealth, a value which they did not previously have and which
has tended to diminish their status to that of chattels of men. The latter do see the
work ability of women as inferior to that of their pre-pacification counterparts
which, together with a changing emphasis on women' important role in exchange
(see Clark 1985), would complement this interpretation. The bridewealth
transaction is labelled bisnis (business) in Melanesian Pidgin and many men do call
their daughters 'my coffee trees', illustrating a linkage between daughters and
money obtained through production and highlighted by one father actually naming
his daughter Kopi, the term for coffee in Melanesian Pidgin. The expre ion
bisnis and 'my coffee trees' are not, however, offered as proof of the
commoditization of women as brides because it is misleading to equate them with
Western concepts of business and property ownership. These expressions
provided a ba is for a different male perception of women.
JEFFREY CLARK 129
Christianity, colonialism, money, labour migration, et cetera have all affected
marriage practices in Pangia, but a discussion of them is outside the scope of this
paper (see Clark 1985). What will be discussed are some of the reasons for
variations in bridewealth today. One source of variation is marriages contracted
outside of Pangia to areas where cash cropping and business have been longer
established and where bridewealth is more inflated. 8 The reverse also holds, as a
non-Wiru husband often gives more bridewealth than is average for a Wiru girl.
Another source of variation is the larger bridewealth given for girls who have
been educated to high-school level. Paying school fees is directly compared to
giving bridewealth: in economic terms it is paying now with the hope of a good
return in the future. A man and his sub-clan give bridewealth anticipating that sons
will result and that his daughters will recoup some of his losses upon their marriage.
A father who sends his daughter to high school expects to either get a good return
for his investment when she marries or to receive money from her if she gets a job
(a requirement also of educated sons).
Giving bridewealth and paying school fees both outlay male wealth,
particularly money, for the bodies of children, who are individuated by their fathers.
A father, by investing his wealth in his daughter's education, further individuates
her and hence makes her body more valuable than those of non-educated girls. That
a girl has had a good education is secondary; when a man gives a large bridewealth
for such a girl it is because of her relative singularity - as a product of her father.
Status also accrues to the man or group which gives or receives a large bridewealth.
Because it is only money which is acceptable as payment for education costs, it is
the size of the money component of an educated girl's bridewealth which is of the
most concern to her father.
Money is convertible to other major wealth items but, like shells, it has
qualities which make its use, in certain situations, singularly appropriate. Yet
money is not an item of traditional wealth and its use in contexts such as
bridewealth transactions transforms the nature of this context. The most
consequential changes to Takuru marriage - marrying further afield and the
introduction of money - have had the most significant quantitative effects on
bridewealth, that is, inflating it, which have in turn qualitatively affected the status
of the bride.
It would be unrealistic to suggest that men have not always seen their
daughters as a source of wealth, and calling bridewealth a bisnis and daughters
'coffee trees' continue this perception. onetheless, this view may have become
more pronounced after pacification, and the administration was concerned about an
increasing tendency to promote child brides for bisnis reasons:
All too frequently it appears as though these girls are having marriage
thrust upon them for the sake of a few pigs and pearlshells and this
130 CANBERRA ANTHROPOLOGY 12 (1 &. 2) 1989
problem needs clo e surveillance to prevent native marriages in this
area descending to an organized business (pangia Patrol Report no. 7,
1966-67).
early ten years later the reports record a Wiru man' views on the relationship
between women and bisnis:
... we have no business in the village, the only way we make money is
through our daughters, therefore we regard females as ways of making
money or business and the pigs [from brideweallh] we sell to the
people. We are very worried as our daughter are being influenced in
western ways and we arc not getting bride price as good as we were in
the last ten years. When the village court system is ... established
Council should make rules to prevent our daughters from going to
socials and smoJcing because they are 1he two main things which are
laking our daughters away from our culture and traditions (Pangia
Patrol Report no. 3, 1975-76).
This statement suggests that the introduction of money, together with the
administration's emphasis on a rapid if not forced development through village cattle
projects, tea plantations and smallholder coffee, significantly changed the position
of women in so far as men became more reliant on women's wealth-generating
aspects. That is, production became more important, or at least more overt, as the
ba i for the individual and group status of men. Production, as a source of male
status, had to be acknowledged to a greater extent than it was in the day of
warfare, ceremonial exchange and cults.
What also emerges from thi statement is that, because of 'their apparent new
freedom' (pangia Patrol Report no. 9, 1966-67) under colonialism, there was a
change in men's perception of women. By moving away from 'culture and
traditions' women were attempting to distance themselves from male control.
Because they were not behaving as women did before pacification, this reflects
badly on men as controllers of women (cf. Johnson 1981) and is one reason for a
marked rise in the number of assaults on women during the period of colonial 'Law
and Order' (pangia Patrol Report no. 9. 1966-67). when people were punished and
gaoled for failing to understand the necessity for development. It was women'
attempts to improve their statu and to assert their individuality that led to male
comments about women's attitudes and labour being inferior to that of prepacification women. The e comments were influenced by women threatening to
withdraw their labour, under colonial protection. in asseltions of their autonomy.
Yet seeing a daughter as a means of obtaining valuables or as being like a
valuable herself are two di fferent things. If men aid daughters are like shell the
equation 'daughters equal valuables' could be propo cd. In terms of the logic of the
exchange system this is improbable as shells/maleness have to be opposed to female
JEFFREY CLARK 131
substance (shells are rarely given female names, as they are in Hagen, for instance
[A. Strathem 1979]). To say they are like coffee trees is to imply daughters - who
as individuals are the product of their fathers - are more a source of wealth than
wealth itself. Coffee trees by themselves are only valuable by producing beans,
grown on group land, which are transformed through a lengthy process of male and
female labour into money. with men usually keeping the bulk of it.
Let us consider another metaphor. Koiya, on losing the 1981 councillor
election, lamented that the people had taken his 'woman' away from him; that is, his
one continual source of prestige and money. The Pangia Member of Parliament,
when contesting the 1982 national elections, asked his audiences, 'Why do the
other candidates want to take my wife?', another direct reference to his occupational
status and source of income. (There is also a moral appeal being made here tealing another man's wife is not proper behaviour.) These allusions to 'wife' are
not just in terms of a wealth source but also in terms of what makes a man what he
is. A man is always in debt, either for his body or his bridewealth, but having a
wife allows a man to act autonomously by taking upon himself responsibility for
these debts. A wife through her labour, and daughters and sisters through their
marriages, allow a man to accrue items of wealth, pigs and pearlshells, which can
be used to augment his status and establish his autonomy. The more a man pays off
his debts the more of an individual he becomes. In this sense wives are a critical
component of a husband's individuality.
It appears, then, that women are not directly comparable to wealth; they are
not an item of value in the same sense as a pearlshell or a pig. Nor are they in any
way the property of a father or husband but rather an extension of the fonner's
individuality and a crucial aspect of a husband's status. Women are valued for their
capacities, but as subjects not objects (M. Strathem 1984). However, with the
introduction of money as an element in bridewealth it is possible that the distinction
does not hold as strongly today. This is related to the individuating effects of
money and its tendency to confuse male and female domains of wealth production.
Women can, with access to money, make themselves more individual (or have the
potential to do so), if not in the same way as men through exchange. But by having
some access to money, through the sale of garden produce and small amounts of
coffee, women can assert a degree of independence. Women may choose to use
this money to buy store-food or clothes, but this is a decision they make about a
valuable, and men may resist it in order to obtain this money for their own use.
(This usually applies only to notes, not small change.)
I am not suggesting that pre-colonial women had little individuality. Ways of
stressing this were for a woman to hang herself or seduce the man of her choice.
Less dramatically, women could give gifts in their own right, although today this
132 CANBERRAANTIIROPOLOGY 12(1 &2) 1989
ability. because of money. is less dependent on the assistance of men. This raises
the possibility of women being able to act more like men; that i • more like
individuals than. from a male point of view, as part of a female ..:ollectivity.
The use of money in bridewealth does not seem to have particularly affected
the nature of this transaction. or by itself affected the importance of women as
creators of body. What it may have done is to make maniage a more economic
occasion, for while money is used much as a traditional valuable it is recognized as
a quantitative measure; that is. for its capacity to obtain things in commodity
exchange. This characteristic of money may lend empha is to the Melanesian
Pidgin expression for bridewealth. baim meri (buying a woman), encouraging the
perception of women as something which can be bought. The meaning of
bridewealth remains but the status of women is transfonned, a hypothesis linked to
the changing perception of women's labour and of their role in exchange - a move
from subject to object.
It is because of this move that. for a Wiru man, a woman today is not the
equal of her pre-pacification counterpart. which is exactly the substance of the major
complaint now made by men about women. Ironically. men say that women.
because of the money they bring in bridewealth, are more valuable today. Women
are caught in a paradox: by acting more like subjects (more like men), they are
viewed by men as more like objects. Because a money value can be put on
women's labour or their worth in bridcwealth, the quantifying effects of money
allow for a partial commoditization of women.
Wealth has its origins in production. that is to say in the labour and
reproductive abilities of women as wives and daughters. It is not surprising that
money also has strong metaphorical associations with these female roles: wives are
'jobs' and daughters are 'coffee trees'. The problem which money poses for men is
that it is 'too much like pigs and not sufficiently like shells' (A. Strathern t 982a:
313); that is, while money, like pearlshells, can be linked to men's exchange
activities. it is more overtly connected to household production. Women's efforts
in helping men to raise money is more visible, as it is in pig production, than their
influence over the shell economy. This problem is compounded by the fact that
money is seen to be more like shells than pigs but, unlike shells. its origin in
production does not avail itself of the same sort of mystification.
Money tends to rcify the association between wealth and production and,
because it is a recently introduced wealth item, no symbolism has yet been
developed to mystify this association or the dependence of men on women for
wealth production. Nonetheless, at the ideological level money is under male
control, the point being that this control is not as rigid as that exercised over shells.
Money exists in various denominations, and women can sell their vegetables and
JE.FFREY ClARK 133
sometimes coffee for money. It is the only wealth item which mediates between the
commodity and gift sectors of the economy. and to which men and women have
read y, if not equal. access.
Money as a valuable was associated with the colonial authorities. just as
pearlshells and steel were linked with the outside world. Yet colonial control
affected the autonomy and independence of Wiru men, and money came to
symbolize this control. Its use exaggerates the external control men now experience
because money is a valuable they need if Wiru are to participate successfully in the
local and regional economy. The dependence on money brought home much more
forcefully Wiru dependence on the outside world, which now encapsulated them in
a different social order. Money is emblematic of men's dependence on this world.
and dependency i associated with femaleness. 9
The reader will have noticed a puzzling discrepancy in the above, namely that
men can produce money - as wage labourers, public ervants and from the sale of
artefacts. et cetera - without a dependence on women. (This twin dependence on
the outside world and on women will be returned to below.) Admittedly. the bulk
of money produced in the village comes from coffee. in the production of which
women contribute more labour than men. who do. however. assist in picldng and
processing. Even though money sometimes escapes its links to the realm of
women's production, its classification as a male wealth item is more problematic
than it is for shells. Partly this is because, at the ideological level, the conflict
between male and female domains of wealth production is more effectively coped
with (even suppressed) for shells.
For reasons discussed above. money may actually widen this conflict. but for
the most part the problematic nature of money is due to the fact that men. since
pacification, have had to become increasingly involved in production. They have
'to act like a woman' in respect of the outside world, on which they are as
dependent for money as they are on women for the production of surplus. The fact
that money can be interpreted in terms of indigenous categories (and used as a
valuable) does not mean that these categories persist unchanged.
Money may be perceived as a valuable but it does things and affects life in
ways which traditional valuables cannot. Its use as gift and commodity redefines
indigenous categories. one outcome of this being that the relationship of men to
women is changed (cf. SaWins 1981: 37). This parallels a change in the
relationship of men to the outside world. a notion to which I will return after
discussing some of the consequences of development for men.
134 CANBERRA ANI1lROPOLOGY 12 (I &. 2) 1989
EXCHANGE AND 'GENDERIZAnON' OF POWER
'This transfonnation did not come about solely through the introduction of
money. It was also a result, and a requirement, of both administration and mis ion
development plans. I have already suggested that women saw a chance for greater
autonomy under colonial protection. They actively participated in changing the
nature of male-female relations, as these quotes from patrol reports indicate:
Women are becoming even more self-assured in the Wiru, and in fact
appear to be upsetting the stalus quo by their outspokeness and
independent stand in such matters as marriage payments, pig exchanges,
etc. Women now realize that Ihey can get away with doing many
things (pangia Patrol Report no. 4, 1973-74).
In marriage the traditional role of women is changing rapidly - they arc
no longer willing to be completely subject to the male whim.
lncrea ingly marriages are breaking up because of the women wanting
to 'do their own thing' (pangia Patrol Report no. 2, 1972-73).
TItis process may be more evident in settlements other than Takum, where women's
behaviour is constrained by the ideological baggage of a fundamentali t, chauvinist
mission. Women subscribe to this ideology because they sec it as necessary to
being good Christians, but at the same time they vehemently maintain an
improvement in their position since pacification.
Today men are limited in their demonstrations of masculinity. They are
constrained by the cessation of warfare, the fewer exchanges and ceremonies in
which they can participate, and the minimal opportunities which church attendance
and ritual afford for status enhancement. lO There have been new exchanges
generated out of a Christian cult (see Clark n.d.a) but the status which men obtain
from them is perhaps moderated by the 'female' associations of Christianity.
Christian men, for example, are restricted like women in the extent to which they
can particpate in the public domain of exchange. The decline of exchange, and in
particular the abandonment of death exchange practices which fully detach the
deceased male from maternal obligations, rendering him a complete male individual,
created a sense of helplessness in men and dependence on missions, which now
provide an alternative to the attainment of self. I I
Men needed an explanation for the loss of their image as aggressive fighters
and for their rapid compliance with kiap directives to abandon warfare for
development It was stated that haps put chemicals in the river, and that drinking its
water 'tamed' Wim and cau ed the onset of fits in some individuals, mostly young
men. Taming made Wim ready for the acceptance of European authority; the
injections given by medical patrols were a]so said by some to have tamed them, as
well as having initiated madness. Notice again how a transformation in the nature
JEFFREY ClARK 135
of men, which I argue leads to changes in the perception of their bodies, was
achieved through acts of behavioural eccentricity.
It is interesting that the fundamentalist missions worked on the body to
change people into Christians: they forbade traditional dress, bodily decorations and
made haircuts a requisite of conversion.
It seems that to be a Christian at Pangia one must wear clothes.
Several missions here insist on it, but, very sadly, do not insist on
washing the clothes, so we have many people clothed in filthy rags all
in the name of God ... a man can be as good a Christian in the raw as
he can be in some Mother Hubbard outfit - particularly if the outfit is
filthy and stinks (pangia Patrol Report no. 3, 1971-72).
Dirt and smell are attributes associated with women because of their care of small
children and their menstruation. Men see their own traditional dress as relatively
clean, at least in comparison with the dress of today, and the significance of the
clothing requirements of the mission seems to be that it led to the covering of men's
skin - the outside 'male' part of their bodies - by dress which has connotations of
femaleness. Men directly cite this policy as a factor in their shrinking, and the
meaning seems to be that the external body of men became feminized (or that
maleness became forcibly contained by mission policy and ideology which had
'female' overtones).
While men realize this particular reason for their shrinking, they are placed in
a situation of conflict because there is little they can do about their dilemma. There
is a strong abhorrence of traditional dress and bodily decoration among many
fundamentalist Wiru, such that a return to this would be seen as a return to the sinful
past. This emphasizes the point that change in Wiru society has been ideological as
well as behavioural. Many parents refuse to send their children to school on
traditional-dress day because they are ashamed of this dress as a symbol of the
pagan era 12
That a response to colonialism is expressed through the idiom of shrinking is
obviously related to Wiru ontology. To explicate this the relationship of procreation
beliefs to ontology needs to be examined. The body has two dimensions: the
outside and inside. It is the latter which is created by one's mother and for which
one is indebted to one's mother's brother for a lifetime. A man creates his
individuality on the outside of his body: his skin and bodily features point to the
kind of man he (and his father) is. The body which is shrinking refers in the first
place to its outside dimension, the masculine individuality of men, which is
compromised by colonial decrees and Christian behaviour, the lack of opportunities
to demonstrate this individuality, the new ways in which this individuality is
expressed, the increased autonomy of women, et cetera.
136 CANBERRA ANTHROPOLOGY 12 (I &. 2) 1989
So far the discussion has treated the concepts 'outside' and 'inside' rather
uncritically. They are used to refer to two different but unrelated things: the
construction of the body and a world view. I have argued exten ivelyelsewhere
(Oark 1985: ch.3a), in reference to the symbolism of pearlshells and pigs, that
the e concepts are related to gender categories. They are observer constructs, but
ones which can be succes fully argued for in terms of wealth symboli m and
procreation beliefs. The relation hip is male:female::outside:inside. Pearlshelis and
pigs, like people, have inside and outside dimensions, and this relates to their u es
in exchange, particularly those concerned with the life cycle.
The relevance of these concepts to a world view is less easy to demonstrate.
First, another aspect of shrinlcing needs to be introduced: the impHcation that Wiru
mcn, in terms of the logic for relating to the outside world, felt emasculated in
relation to the colonial authorities. This needs to be explained by reference to
another equation, namely Pangia:external world::female:male. M. Strathern (in
press) argue that in Wiru exchange wealth metaphorically ubstitutes for the body.
This gives a clue as to why this equation has analytical utility. Men construct their
'skins' through the exchange of pearlshells and pork. Shells, which are a more
explicitly 'male' symbol than pig, have ultimately external origins. The origin of
new durable wealth was (and is) European. The autonomy of men, exhibited
through their skins (today through clothes and wrist-watche ), i always
compromi ed by the greater wealth of the world to the west. The body which i
metaphorically substituted for by wealth inevitably has a component of undermining
external 'maleness', which was made more overt during colonialism. It is this
component which suggests that Wiru men were dependent for the symbols of their
maleness (valuables such as shells and salt 13 ) on the outside. So in thi way
another link. is made between the outside and malencss, although in this instance it is
Wiru men who, in relationship to the external, overlap into the category 'female'.
The sexual implications of shrinking need to be examined in more detail,
especially in the contcxt of changes which required men to live with women in the
intcrests of maintaining a Christian household and in which the men were prohibited
from polygyny, adultery and pre-marital ex by mis ions, while at the arne time
women were given more autonomy by the administration. The verb linked to
'shrinking', koloi toko, is u ed in reference to thc cordyline plant, the white
growing tip of which has the arne name a the penis, adene. The concept that
maleness is an external attribute in 0 far as the peni i on the outside of the body is
comon in many societies. The connection between the external and the penis is also
made by Wiru, which suggests to me that it i not an especially e oterlc concept but
onc which finds a particular cxpression in this society.
JEFFREY ClARK 137
'Shrinking' is framed in terms of a botanical metaphor which links the penis,
the external and growth. Penile striations are compared with the growth rings on
bamboo and certain trees, but in this case the growth referred to is negative. This
lends force to an explanation of shrinking in terms of sexual fears or emasculation.
It i continued sexual contact and pollution - a long-term exposure to women which are connected with shrinking through age. Pollution ideas are an expression
of the relationship between men and women, a relationship which changed with
colonialism. At the same time there was a change in the relationship of men to the
outside world and, in so far as men are forced into a closer association with women
and simultaneously deprived of their traditional control over them, it could be
suggested that men are metaphorically polluted by development The change in the
nature of intersexual relations mirrored the change in the relationship of men to the
outside world. This led to a change in the nature of men.
An analysis of the following story, which was said to be true but was told to
me in response to my queries about the status of women, supports the argument so
far.
There was a man who had a very large penis, which he named keke yule
(yule is a secret teon for penis, keke the name of this one). Women
were scared to marry him and many refused. At a 'singsing' his brother
tied a pig rope to his penis and led him around like a pig. He killed
three wives by having intercourse with them, but his fourth wife
survived because he only inserted his penis a little way. She went back
to her parents claiming victory (as in warfare) and planted a cordyline to
mark this. However, she returned to her husband and he fully inserted
his penis and killed her.
A brief discussion of cordylines, which are multivocal symbols in Wiru
society, is required here. They refer to the penis, to maleness, in that they are
planted to celebrate male achievements and death and are boundary markers for
gardens, graves, cult enclosures, et cetera. Cordylines are also worn as rear
coverings by men, and are planted to indicate that a taboo has been imposed on
certain activity. In a general sense they provide messages in their capacity a
boundary marl<ers between different domains; for example, life and death, men and
spirits (A. Strathem 1982b: 120; Wagner 1972: 125-129).
The moral of the above story is that women may think they win a few battles
but men always wi -- the ultimate confrontation. The penis is used as a weapon in
men's attempts to control women, and it is significant that there is also a cordyline
motifto the story. The woman plants a cordyline for her victory over the penis, the
penis which later kills her· perhaps in retaliation for her use of a male symbol; that
is, her presumption of winning. The penis is used by men to control women, but
this control i not the equal of that exercised by Whites over Wiru. It is not
138 CANBERRA ANTIIROPOLOGY 12 (1 &: 2) 1989
surprising that shrinking has overtones of emasculation (and detumescence) and that
Wim men are 'female' in respect of outside men.
That a cordyline is used as the botanical metaphor fOf the deteriorating
physical condition of men suggests that they are today less capable of as erting
control over women and indeed over their relationship with the outside world. TIle
boundary which cordyline appears to be referring to in the context of hrinking is
the one between Wim and Europeans, and the message is the unequal relation hip
between them.
Takum men explicitly relate shrinking to mission requirements, which
compromised the male body, but also to declining garden yields, which they blame
on the arrival of Europeans, who stole the fertility out of the soil and took it back to
Australia. This is also one explanation for the rise in frequency of famines. There
i no doubt that men in Takum strongly relate the fact of their diminution to
pacification,14 development and Quistianity, a perception basically caused by the
loss of autonomy which men experience in the control of their lives and futures, and
in the control of the cosmos now that cults have an external control through
missions. 15
Thi linkage of shrinking to the sphere of production needs to be explored.
Men insist that they work harder today than they did before pacification, which is in
contrast to statements made by various anthropologists in the Highlands that
pacification freed men from the time-consuming requirements of defence and
warfare and allowed them more time for participation in exchange (A. Strathern
1971; Salisbury 1962). This, of course, accompanied a decrease in the time men
spent in production with the availability of steel tools. Sillitoe suggests that the
introduction of steel tools may in fact have increased men's labour requirements
(l979b: 155), which, together with the necessity for making bigger gardens
because of the perceived deterioration in soil fertility, may explain this claim of Wiru
men. Whatever the reason for this statement, men consider themselves to be more
involved in production today and, in so far as the act of production is strongly
associated with women, they have to act more like women.
The mode of production remains basically unchanged (with the exception of a
decline in co-operative labour). Men's labour may be more intensive but it is
directed toward the same sort of work, such as felling tree and making fence .
Men continue to appropriate surplu product, but for the money produced by
household labour this has become problematic in the ense that women'
contribution to raising money, like raising pigs, is more visible than their role in
'producing' pearlshells. The conditions for the reproduction of this mode changed
under colonialism, such that the contradictions inherent within it became intensified
as men became more trapped in the producer role (see Donald on 1982: 436).
JEFFREY CLARK 139
Prohibitions on polygyny mean that many men now have only one wife, another
reason for an increased male labour input. especially as this is a society in which
men depend for tatu more on home production than on finance (A. Strathern
1978).
The appropriation of money by men has become less supponable
ideologically, and women can more openly challenge this appropriation by
threatening to withdraw their labour or claiming a share of coffee money - which
provides another threat to men's dominance and solidarity. Both are contingent
upon this appropriation, which reflects male control of land, labour and the
reproduction of the social relations of production.
The regular production of a surplus was the key internal political
problem. As Langness (1974: 205) has observed, To survive in the
New Guinea Highlands. and especially to survive well - to have many
large gardens and many pigs - it [was] necessary to control the labour
and, indeed, the actual bodies of women. They must do what [was]
required of them - and when it [was] required' (Donaldson 1982: 446).
Wiru men found themselves in a paradoxical position: their control over women was
being threatened while the control they exercised was very similar to that which
kiap had over Wiru men in the pursuit of long-term development schemes.
An extreme form of Wiru gifting provides support for the argument so far.
This is the practice of poi mokora, a hostile and potentially lethal gift. The purpose
of this gift is ultimately to question a man's masculinity. It usually involves heaping
pork sides at the feet of the recipient, or giving him a whole pig. The donor, by
giving more of his 'maleness', which pork sides represent in Wiru symbolism,
symbolically attacks the 'maleness' of the recipient. Poi mokora is said to break the
bow and arrows of the man that receives it because, due to the quantity of pork
given, he has to put down his weapons and spoil his decorations by acting like a
woman in assisting his wife to carry the pork home.
With the acceptance of Christianity the locus of creative control had to widen
to incorporate God as well as mother's brothers. The interpretation of the mission
message was informed by a traditional logic such that God and mothers' brothers,
between them. created a Christian body (see Clark 1985). To return to the claim
that men work harder today - this is possibly in reference to men doing the 'hard
work' involved in maintaining this creation through engaging in Christianity and
development, just as women do all the 'hard work' in childbearing. A consequence
ofthi is that men are in debt to missions for bringing the message (a new cult) and
encouraging the growth of the Christian body. Missions are seen as being 'mother'
to their congregation/children'. They provided the nurture which changed people
from wild pigs to kristens (Christians). People are also in debt to the administration
140 CANBERRA ANTIIROPOLOGY 12 (1 & 2) 1989
for bringing development, which is one of the rewards of Christianity. These
debts, which men stand little chance of repaying because they are incurred outside
the parameters of the exchange system, are nonetheless perce~..ed in terms of the
logic of this system. The dependence which Wiru feel towards Europeans uggests
that, in a sense, they gave poi mokora to Wiru, which makes them, relatively, less
'male'. Men do say that now they have to act like women - behaviour which i in
respect of European men. Wives/women are a metaphor for the complementarity of
the sexe in production, and 'to act like a woman' is a metaphor for the
complementarity of Wiru and Europeans in development worlc, a process which
reduced Wiru to 'females' because of their dependence and debt towards Whites.
Yet men's bodies constitute agnatic groups, and this dimension of unity and
membership has also been affected since pacification. Collective acts of
individuation, which men perform on themselves and their sons through engaging
in exchange, contribute to the reproduction of an agnatic identity over time. Today,
however, church denomination provides an additional and wider component of
group membership, in which Christian individuality is a feature of group unity. It
must be remembered that women are allowed participation in church ceremony, that
men's control over the rituals ensuring reproduction is no longer total and the malefemale relationship is again redefined, threatening male solidarity.
Wesleyanism (in Takuru) supplies a 'moral symbol' for agnatic behaviour, as
does the idiom of descent. That is, this behaviour is now also constrained by the
requirements of a Christian ethos, and the group is no longer defined in explicitly
masculine terms as warlike or aggressive; and performance in exchange, while still
important, is ranked with performance in bisnis. Yet success in bisnis is linked to
Christianity (leaders in the fundamentalist churches are often the most successful
bisnismen and politicians) and to the sphere of production, both of which have
'female' associations.
Traditionally, groups were defined partly through cult performance, and
nowadays this definition takes place through church attendance and ritual, which
contruct the group not only as a clan but also as a denomination (We leyan).
Because of this, men and groups are con trained from di playing their masculinity through dres ,decoration and traditional behaviour - which is on the 'outside', and
must contain it within their clothed, and hence hidden, Christian body, which i
'inside' and associated with femaleness. At the arne time women, by becoming
more threatening to men, are perhaps taking on 'male' attributes, which is why men
attempt to render them more into objects than subjects. 16
This is a society which has, to a large extent, responded to development and
Christianity in terms of an exchange model. Exchange underpins and constructs all
social and cosmological relations. There was a changing perception of the world
J.EFFREY CLARK 141
under colonialism which generated different expectations and encouraged notions of
an entirely new beginning. Wiru felt that development and Christianity would
inaugurate this new age, which had a moral dimension appropriate to it
Exchange and cult/church perfonnance construct reality, and in the postpacification context this construction led to declarations that Talcuru is the 'home of
peace' or the 'place of love'. This relates to the new world envisaged by
Takuruans, and which is a focus of revival activity. People perceive contemporary
Takuru society as radically different from its pre-colonial fonn, and this is a largely
valid perception which is related to the practice of exchange and Wesleyanism
today. The underlying logic of society has. however, persisted, and in the
'structure of the [colonial] conjuncture' (Sahlins 1981: 32) has led to a
transformation of this fonn. Takuruans much prefer their 'home of peace' to
warfare, flight and the uncertainties of pre-coloniallife, but recognize at the same
time that this peace has been achieved to the detriment of an ideal of masculinity.
CONCLUSION
The argument has been that certain Wiru cultural themes have influenced the
response to colonialism. Procreation beliefs infonn a particular view of the body, in
which the outside is 'male' and the inside 'female'. Implicit in the paper is the
suggestion that this view of the body influenced a perception of the outside world,
from which came valuables, cults and, later, Europeans, who were themselves
associated with valuables and cults. The Highlanders to the north and west were
part of a relationship of categories in which outside:inside::male:female. 17 This
relationship was constructed through eXChange, which involves notions of
inequality.
I have discussed the body as a metaphor for and a vehicle of change. This is
only possible because the body is primarily a metaphor for the person; more
precisely, it is what a person makes of his/her body that becomes the metaphor for
his/her individuality. That men are shrinking implies that the body is also a
metaphor for a male view of society, and a trope for changing social relationships.
The changing nature of male-female relations after pacification - and these are
relations which underpin the exchange system - together with the introduction of a
new cult from the outside, transfonned Wiru society.
An alteratio;. in the relationship between given categories affects their
possible relationships to other categories. The structure, as a set of
relationships among relationships, is transformed (Sahlins 1981: 37).
When the outside. represented by Europeans. money and Christianity, came inside
Pangia, the cosmology was radically altered. The outside attributes of men became
142 CANBERRA ANlllROPOLOGY 12 (1 &; 2) 1989
encapsulated by the inside attributes of women. Men became increasingly female
and women became, for men, increasingly objects.
This paper is based on two periods of fieldwork between 1980 and 1985, the first for
eighteen month and the second for three months. I wish to thank the governments of
Papua ew Guinea and the Southern Highlands Province for permission to undertake
research. The University of Adelaide and its Department of Anthropology provided funds
for fieldwork, for which I express my appreciation. Chris Healey provided many valuable
suggestions for revisions; any errors are, of course, my own.
1 For the Kewa see Josephides 1985: 77; for Huli see Frankel 1986: 32-37. For a
comparison between Wiru and Melpa see A. Strathern 1984: ch. 3.
2 It i worth pointing out that the Southern Highlands produce only I per cent of coffee
sold in the Highlands. To write that Pangia is relatively well off compared to other
Southern Highlands ocieties but, in comparison with Western Highlanders such as
Melpa Ie affluent, indicates the complexities of explaining development in terms of a
centre-periphery model (see A. Strathem 1984).
3 There are strong similarities to the liminal phase described by Turner (1974), in which
there is a movement between structures, in this case from the past (sin) to the present (a
new order through Chri tianily) through the reconstitution of the body.
4 This factor was pointed out to me by Marilyn Strathern (personal communication).
5 Josephides quotes a 1958 Kagua patrol report which states that walking-canes were de
rigeur at lalibu lation (1985: 71). It is interesting that the 1958 Ialibu patrol report,
which I quote, states that the walking-cane phenomenon was unknown at lalibu, but
found in Pangia I do not know the reasons for this discrepancy.
6 Kawali, a sub-clan in Takuru, was referred to by the other sub-clans as 'our woman'
because it derived most of its status from production and had a limited role in extra-district
politics. This underlines the fact that 'female' can be a category as well as a gender
construct
7 Rats are associated with female qualities and are given as a part of bridewealth to help
ensure the fertility of the bride.
8 There is not necessarily a correlation between a more capitalist economy and bridewealth
inflation, although inflation is often greater in societies with a longer hi tory of ca h
cropping.
9 Money produced through coffee sales i appropriated by the outside world in ways which
traditional wealth was not; for example, by paying head-tax, buying trucks, etc.
10 Church attendance and ritual do serve the same sort of functions as cults (see Clark
1985), but it is mainly pastors who benefit from Christian cult performance.
11 I am indebted to Marilyn Strathern (personal communication) for this uggestion. I do
not know if death exchange has declined in non-fundamentalist WiJU eulements,
although it appear not to have done (A. Strathern 1981).
12 This makes for an interesting comparison with Umeda bodily decoration. GelJ
suggests that a new 'skin', in the context of Umeda ritual, indicates a new personality to
JEFFREY ClARK 143
the dancer (1975: 321). For Wiru, a new 'skin', achieved through Christian clothes and
behaviour, indicates a kristen personality, which can have negative consequences for
men's self-esteem.
13 Salt is thought by some to have the same origin place as men. There may be a
relationship between salt and maleness, although as far as I can discover salt is not
comparable with semen, perhaps because explicit notions of male substance in bodily
constitution i not a feature of Wiru procreation beliefs.
14 A partial search of the literature revealed only one reference to other Highlands people
believing themselves smaller after pacification: the Gainj. Their ethnographer reports that
their perceived diminution is a response to the comparatively large size of Australian
colonial officers. She does discuss changes in male-female relations but these are not
expticitely related to ideological explanations for shrinking. It is not clear if shrinking is
only a male concern or one which women share (Johnson 1981).
The Telefolmin believe that they are becoming progressively smaller but this is
related to an entropy view of society and not to pacification (yet see Jorgensen 1985:
208). The Huli also subscribe to this view (Frankel 1986), but there have been no
reports of their perceived diminution. Wiru shrinking is related mote to a concern with
bodily boundaries, as in sorcery (cf. Lindenbaum 1979: 68). The clothes that men wear
are symbolic of the boundary between Wiru and the outside world.
15 Many Wiru are choosing a more autonomous path by becoming Pentacostalist or
Seventh Day Adventist The reason given is often a direct rejection of mission control,
or an attempt to get resources on their own if missions are seen to have failed in living
up to expectations.
16 This i probably a contributing factor in men's stated preference for marrying kanaka
(bush) rather than educated women. The latter are said to not worle hard and to cause
trouble.
17 This does not mean that Wiru were subservient to the outside world as this is an
ideological and not behavioural relation hip. In fact, to other Highlanders, Wiru had a
reputation as aggressive and unstable people; perhaps this behaviour was a response to the
Wiru perception of the external. Wiru, nonetheless, were enthusiastic in accepting
outside pronouncements, and some missionaries who witnessed the rapidity of Wiru
conversion to Christianity described them as 'wishy-washy'.