'0' iMJ@iIi'k@ g .,"cramm 1\, dew ""mA'i '§ Rf"!' II. ! II O~tt!!'t!"7VWIIfP"'"'

Perhaps the best way to summarizethe differences between the two books,and to emphasize their respective qual­ities, is to say that May's book is whatyou recommend to an earnest under­graduate, or to an academic who iscoming to the subject of the military inPapua New Guinea for the first time.Liria's book, on the other hand, iswhat you recommend to the discerningpostgraduate student who is alreadyfamiliar with May's book, or to theacademic who is an old hand at PapuaNew Guinea affairs. The incrediblylarge amount of startling and fresh evi­dence in Liria's book, on virtuallyevery aspect of the Papua New GuineaDefence Force and its counterinsur­gency activities, particularly the nega­tive aspects concerning incompetence,indiscipline, lack of professionalism,crippling rivalries and absence of anesprit de corps, lack of commitment tosoldiering, and so on, have to benoticed and carefully garnered becausethey are usually offered in passing. Notonly does Liria write as an insider,with a direct knowledge and under­standing of what he is writing about,but as a Papua New Guinea nationalhe is far less inhibited in his criticismsand exposure of national failings. Hecan afford to be far more forthright inhis assessments than can foreignerswho want to be able to continue towork in Papua New Guinea or want tobe able to come and go.

YAW SAFFU

University of Papua New Guinea

394

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THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC· FALL 1995

Voices of Conflict, by Andrew Strath­ern. Ethnology Monographs 14. Pitts­burgh: Department of Anthropology,University of Pittsburgh, 1993. ISBN0-945428-°7-3,265 pages, maps,figures, photographs, bibliography.Paper, US$I1.50.

In Voices of Conflict, Andrew Strath­ern takes a broad view of conflictamong the Melpa of the Mount Hagenarea of Highlands Papua New Guinea,drawing primarily on material col­lected on several visits to the areabetween 1981 and 1986. Chapters 2,3, and 4 present detailed accounts,complete with transcripts of mediation

. sessions, of three disputes between kinand neighbors. Chapters 5,6, and 7explore regional patterns of conflictsuch as rivalry between Christian sects,resurgence of tribal warfare, andviolence associated with elections.Throughout, Strathern has two con­cerns. First, he contributes to anunderstanding of conflict resolution insmall societies by exploring the logic ofdispute settlement among the Melpa,including the goals and characteristicsof talk at various phases of the pro­ceedings, and the factors influencingdecisions. Second, Strathern examinesthe impact of recent economic andpolitical changes, particularly thoseaffecting the Highlanders followingPapua New Guinean independence in1 975.

Through the detailed examinationof cases in the early chapters, Stratherncontributes to a larger literature onconflict resolution in the Pacific and insmall communities elsewhere. Overall,he argues that the most important fac­tor influencing the way Hageners deal

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BOOK REVIEWS

with disputes is participants' assess­ment of the potential impact of thedispute on intergroup relations. Heargues persuasively that people aremost' concerned with resolving dis­putes when they might lead to violentconfrontation between clans or sub­clans. Decisions made about particularcases also reflect this concern withregional relations. Thus, in a disputebetween two women over a pig, medi­ators were less interested in the detailsof the two women's claims than withthe fact that one of the women's clansneeded the pig for a presentation toforestall confrontation with anotherclan. In an interesting discussion,Strathern considers the impact of thisconcern with the wider social field onthe status of women. Contrary to theusual stereotypes of Highland women,the women involved in this disputeclearly saw themselves as active partic­ipants in exchange relationships pursu­ing agendas independent of male kin;but, ultimately, the women's fate wasdecided by male mediators who wereprimarily concerned with a regionalnetwork of relationships also deter­mined by males.

Considerations about the potentialof conflict to lead to intergroup vio­lence also shape rhetorical strategies inmoots. Many scholars have noted thatPacific Islanders often use indirect ormetaphorical ways of speaking. Strath­ern finds that Hageners prefer meta­phorical speech only when evidence isambiguous and the dispute could leadto violent conflict between groups.When there is considerable consensusabout the dispute, or when the rela­tionship between disputants is strongand fighting unlikely, then people pre-

395

fer blunt, straightforward speech.Strathern also contributes to a consid­erable literature suggesting that media­tors in many small communities areless concerned with finding the literal"facts" of cases than with construct­ing "more ideal" versions of problem­atic events that are "socially true" inthe sense of reinforcing patterns ofauthority, upholding communalnorms, and restoring good relations.Strathern again qualifies this general­ization by suggesting that Hagen medi­ators aim for "social truth" only whenthey think that conflict might lead tointergroup fighting. When disputantsare from the same group or have astrong relationship, mediation ses­sions generally involve detailed consid­eration of evidence aimed at uncov­ering the "literal truth" about whathappened.

Perhaps the most valuable contribu­tion of the monograph is to an under­standing of the impact of recenteconomic, political, and social changeson rural New Guineans. Here Strath­ern takes a pessimistic view, arguingpersuasively that recent changes havestrained the capacity of Hagen societyand have led to increasingly destructiveoutbreaks of warfare. Strathern sug­gests that while pacification under theAustralians led to a shift from warfareto moka exchanges as expressions ofintergroup rivalry, more recent changeshave caused a shift back to warfare.There are several destabilizing factors.First, the profitable Highlands coffeeindustry has produced real inequali­ties in wealth that lead to new tensionsbetween successful entrepreneurs and ayounger generation of well-educatedhave-nots. Young men now form ras-

THE CONTEMPORARY PACIFIC· FALL 1995

Fruit of the Motherland: Gender in anEgalitarian Society, by Maria Lep­owsky. New York: Columbia Univer­sity Press, 1993. ISBN 0-231-08120-9(paper), xviii + 383 pages, maps,tables, photographs, notes, glossary,bibliography, index. Cloth, US$49.oo;paper, US$17.50.

the logic of disputing among theMelpa and, by implication, in otherPacific societies. The most valuablecontribution of the book lies inenhancing understanding of therecent outbreaks of violence in High­lands Papua New Guinea and in otherareas of the country, and of the im­pact of recent changes on rural NewGuineans.

The Massim, a collection of remoteisland communities off the southeast­ern tip of Papua New Guinea, has longbeen recognized by anthropologists asa cultural region where the status ofwomen is high. Aware of this reputa­tion, Maria Lepowsky was drawn tothe Massim island of Sudest-knownlocally as Vanatinai, literally "mother­land"-on the outer reaches of theLouisiade Archipelago, to study genderrelations across the life cycle of bothmen and women. Conceiving herproject as a "holistic, old fashionedethnographic study" (x), Lepowskywas primarily interested in the materialand ideological foundations underpin­ning egalitarian gender relations andsocial organization.

Embarking on fieldwork in the late

cal groups to redress economic in­equalities through theft and vandalism.New wealth has also brought greateraccess to illegal guns, in turn causingincreasing intergroup violence: clansthat might before have sought nonvio­lent resolution to disputes now feelsuperior gun power will help themaccomplish their goals through war­fare. Furthermore, possession ofguns-some of them from homemadepipes and hardwood-has widened thescale of warfare; groups with fewerguns extend their network of alliancesto protect themselves from the superiorgun power of their enemies. A seconddestabilizing factor is the presence ofnew government and church institu­tions that have weakened the authorityof indigenous political and ritual struc­tures. In one case, for instance, a mansuccessfully resisted community pres­sure to pay compensation in a disputeby threatening to take the case to ahigher level court that everyone sus­pected would not uphold the localconsensus. Similarly, people avoidexchange obligations by becomingmembers of Christian churches thatoppose such exchanges. A final factorcontributing to the escalation of inter­group conflict is the national politicalsystem. Hageners have embraced elec­toral politics with a vengeance, turningelections into yet another contestbetween clans. But electoral districtsinvolve more people than did tradi­tional forums for intergroup competi­tion and so create new contexts withthe potential to erupt into large-scaleviolence.

In short, Voices of Conflict providesrich case material, which Strathernuses to reach useful conclusions about

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KAREN BRISONUnion College

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