Blok laif : an ethnography of a Mosbi settlement

Abstract

This thesis is about urban sociality in the context of an urban settlement in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. I explore issues of urban life through everyday stories of settlers who reside in a settlement (also known as a blok) at Nine Mile, Port Moresby. I present settlers’ ideas of work and money through their income generating efforts as well as their perception about giving. This thesis explores settlement notions of the forms that relatedness takes through everyday interactions of eating together, sharing and thinking of one another. These actions in turn inform ideas of personhood and gender. I use blok ideas to rethink assumptions about the meaning of land and place in an urban setting. Furthermore I seek to use blok understandings of kinship, personhood and gender to portray an urban sociality that is entwined in relations.