characteristics derive equally from these roots and the ever-present
option for movement which the fringes have offered them.
Notes
1. The Miyan version of "Fak" is "Hak".
2. Prayers offered to the s p i r i t s who look a f t e r the taro frequently feature requests f o r them to bring the sun ( i d e n t i f i e d with the founding ancestor-heroine) to drive away the clouds so that the taro may be "cooked", th a t i s , grow and mature quic kly.
I also believe th a t the cloud cover in an area is an important consideration when gardeners seek good "ta ro- gr ou nd" .
3. But Mianmin men do not appear to be as large as Abau men; however since i t is normal f o r these men to spend considerable time on plantations in t h e i r youth the difference may not r e f l e c t the pre-contact sizes.
4. The assumptions used in t h i s argument need to be substantiated - preferably by research in Mianmin gardens. However they do receive some support from informants' statements about there being less taro av aila ble in the lowlands. These may be cases of "the other man's grass . . . " . Of course there are compensations f o r the low
land dwellers - mainly in greater abundance of large game at these a l t i t u d e s .
5. Cassava is eaten too, e i t h e r when taro is short or when ind iv id ua ls ( l i k e the Bible schoolboys) are not planting s u f f i c i e n t taro to avoid gaps in harvests because o f the pressure of other commit ments. However i t is not r e a l l y c u l t i v a t e d in the way taro is since i t grows so re a d i l y with no a tt en tio n whatsoever - at least around Yapsiei.
6. Morren has gone f u r t h e r (1979) and has suggested tha t Mianmin settlement and r e s id e n ti a l patterns are determined by the
a v a i l a b i l i t y of game - in p a r t i c u l a r the pig. I do not believe his arguments are adequate (Gardner 1980).
7. The West Mianmin, l i k e t h e i r eastern r e l a t i v e s (Morren 1974:229), believe tha t the Telefolmin were e n t i r e l y j u s t i f i e d in r i s i n g up against the European Administration in 1953. They say that t h e i r Telefolmin enemies suffered a great deal of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of the st a t io n personnel.
8. I t can r e a d i l y be imagined what impact t h i s single act had upon the r e l a t i v e hunting capacities o f the pastor and his fel lo w hunters. In the lowlands o f remote West Mianmin t e r r i t o r y the bi rd l i f e is staggering and with a shotgun the most inept of hunters can bag many more birds in a few hours than a s k i l l e d hunter with a bow in as many days. I t also makes a diffe ren ce to the rate o f success in other areas too; the larg est balled
ca r tr i d g e is e f f e c t i v e against pigs and cassowaries. The shotgun also increases the number of animals in the " h i t but not bagged" category since i t s spray of shot is so ind isc ri mi nat e.
9. This f i g u r e was quoted by Assistant D i s t r i c t O f f i c e r A. Hazelwood (1973).
10. In addition the protein intake is almost c e r t a i n l y inadequate to the needs of pregnant and l a c t a t i n g women - a state of a f f a i r s n u t r i t i o n a l research has shown to have a wide d i s t r i b u t i o n (see Hyndman 1979:Chap.VII f o r a discussion and review of the
P a r t Two
MIANMIN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Men may d i e b u t t a l k n ever d o e s " . Mianmin s a y i n g .
Introduction
The ethnography o f the New Guinea Highlands is famous wi thi n the d i s c i p l i n e of social anthropology as much f o r i t s impact upon thin k in g about basic features of social str uc tur e as i t is f o r i t s c o n tr i b u ti o n to our factual knowledge. Ever since Barnes (1962) raised the question of the a p p l i c a b i l i t y of African Models there has been l i v e l y discussion of a range of issues concerned with the ro le of kinship, descent, and residence in the c o n s t i t u t i o n of groups, the r e la t i o n s between them and the a l l o c a t i o n of resources. I t seems, moreover, th a t the problems raised by the ethnography of the Highlands and other parts of New Guinea and Melanesia continue to exercise anthropologists (Strathern 1973, 1979; Kelly 1977; Mandeville 1979; Si 11ito e 1980). Most researchers would probably agree tha t a degree of f l e x i b i l i t y or s tr u c tu ra l looseness is rather more c h a r a c t e r i s e c of Highlands societies than the cl assic ones of A fr i c a .
However, i t is possible to detect in these numerous discussions two strands: i ) the extent to which New Guinea societies d i f f e r from African ones which appear to be comparable (these are Fortes and
Evans-Pritchard' s (1940) "Group B" s o c i e ti e s , the Nuer, Tallensi e t c . , and other acephalous s o c i e t i e s ) ; i i ) the adequacy of social
anthropology's conceptions of the re la ti o n s between what p a r t i c u l a r in d iv i d u a l s do and the wider context - esp ecially as t h i s is
formulated in a n a l y t i c a l l y constructed models of the society.
In regard to the f i r s t of these strands i t is worth pointing out th a t some o f the a n a ly ti c a l problems arose from the confidence of anthropologists th a t the basic features of stateless societies had been discovered in the analysis of African data; stateless societies were (and probably s t i l l are) seen to be coterminous with kinship- based s o ci e ti e s . The kinship system, in the sense given by Rad cli ff e- Brown (1950:84), which incorporated the re la t i o n s between lineages and clans, was assumed to be the most fundamental of the str u c tu ra l features o f the society and the one most apt f o r typing societies with a view to comparison ( f o r example see Lawrence 1971:6). Even when the society under study showed l i t t l e resemblance to the African ones in regard to the way groups were re c ru it e d , conceptualized or
For example kaga-don is a category used by the people of the Star
Mountains which according to Pouwer is l i t t l e more than a 'name group1. The name is passed on p a t r i l i n e a l l y , but the people sharing the name do not function as a u n i t of any kind, " i t is neither
exogamous nor corporate with respect to p o l i t i c a l , s o c i a l , r e l i g i o u s , or legal matters" (1964:136). Pouwer's description makes i t seem rather l i k e a surname but he chooses to c a l l the kaga-don ' c l a n s ' .
Then in order to account f o r the f a c t that they have 'clan s' but do not use them he introduces "two r e a l i t i e s corresponding to d i f f e r e n t levels o f ab str act ion : a social organisation and a social str ucture" (1964:139). Such usages ignore the f a c t th a t the clans of the
analyses o f the A f r i c a n i s t s were f u n c t i o n a l l y defined and not merely s tr u c tu r a l abstractions. Scholars may have used t h i s terminology, l i k e Langness, " f o r want of a be tt e r language" (1969:38), but the a n a l y ti c a l problems might have been dealt with more e a s i ly had
discussion been freed of the connotations tha t terms l i k e 'cl an ' and 'lin ea ge ' i n e v i t a b l y car ried with them.
In regard to the more fundamental question of the adequacy of anthropological categories fo r the general task of analysing social l i f e , the data from New Guinea provide i n t e r e s t i n g examples of some o f the issues. Evans-Pritchard and Radcliffe-Brown distinguished between social e n t i t i e s as p a r t i c u l a r i n s t a n t i a t i o n s of categories and as the actual categories under which the p a r t i c u l a r s are subsumed. Thus, Evans-Pritchard emphasised the diffe ren ce between groups o f kin
and categories, of kin (1950:364), and Radcliffe-Brown stated tha t the
proper object of social s tr u c tu ra l analysis was the person and not the i n d i v i d u a l ; or, as he also put i t , the social pe rso na lity rather than the organism (1940:passim). These themes emerged once again in
the discussions of New Guinea and Melanesia through the analyses of S c he ff le r (1966), Keesing (1971) and Strathern (1973), discussions which pointed to the need f o r more subtle consideration of the uses to which descent constructs were put. I t was r i g h t l y pointed out th a t they may be used f o r a v a r ie t y of organisational and ideological
purposes. But while i t is true that a degree o f polysemy t y p i c a l l y attaches to terms l i k e 'c l a n ' and t h e i r native equivalents, i t is also true th a t the relevant conception o f the ind ivid ual may not always be patent; t h i s follows from, and is part o f , the polysemy of the terms designating categories o f in d iv i d u a l s . On each side of the i n d i v i d u a l /