'We are a kula people' : spatiotemporal roads of care in southeastern Papua New Guinea

Abstract

In this thesis I examine the implications of the statement ‘we are a kula people’ made by my participants in Duau, located on the northeastern corner of Normanby Island in Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. Specifically I will argue that this maxim signals that kula is an ethos which guides them as they navigate their way into the future. The primary feature of this ethos is oboboma, which can translate as care, appreciation, love, generosity, or blessing. Throughout this thesis I will demonstrate that it is through acts of care that Duau people create, nurture, and finally, at death, finish the many social relationships they make throughout their lives. Duau would refer to those various social relationships that constitute their persons as keda. This is a spatial concept meaning road, path, or sea lane. But they also use it to speak about temporality. In these contexts keda becomes modalities of social activity or a way of life. Persons can travel along various temporal keda over the course of their life – e.g., kula, Christianity, business, motherhood/fatherhood, schooling, wage labour, and civil service. They would frame these temporal keda as if they were material infrastructures like their literal analogues. Old keda can be followed, maintained, or fall into disrepair. Trailblazers can produce new keda for others to follow. To manage and produce keda is an act of care. In this thesis I will guide you along several keda, such as the relationships that constitute Duau persons, kula exchange itself, their conversion to Christianity, mortuary rituals, cash-cropping betelnut and gold, education, and the relationship between Duau and the Papua New Guinean Constitution. I will ultimately argue that, in their efforts to build enduring exchange relations with Euro-Americans, these roads are leading them away from their customs.