Anthro.test

BACKGROUND

New Guinea: New Guinea lies to the north of Australia and is the world's second largest island.
Gende: With a population over 10,000, the Gende are one of the larger of a thousand language groups living on the island of New Guinea. The Gende's homeland is in Madang Province.
Yandera: The largest Gende village with close to five hundred residents when I began my fieldwork there in 1982.
Fieldwork: Firsthand field experience is the source of most anthropological findings and a basis for sound theory. Another name for fieldwork is ethnography.
Anthropology: Anthropology is the study of human cultures. Cultural anthropologists, like myself, work with living peoples while archaeologists tell us about the past.
Culture: A people's (or group's) traditions, beliefs and customs.
Ethnography: Ethnography refers to both fieldwork in a particular culture and the written results of that fieldwork.

Melanesian: Melanesia is a cultural area which includes the islands of New Guinea, the Solomons, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, parts of Fiji, and other islands located in the southwestern Pacific.
Dissertation: A work of scientific description and comparison required for completion of a doctorate in anthropology and almost always based on firsthand fieldwork.
Provincial Research Officer: Each of Papua New Guinea's nineteen provinces has research officers who oversee the organization and execution of research in their particular provinces.
Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies: A body charged with coordinating research in Papua New Guinea and facilitating the achievement of research and visa requirements for national and foreign researchers.

Tok Pisin: Neo-Melanesian, or tok pisin, is a fully developed creole language spoken throughout much of New Guinea and, with variations, elsewhere in Melanesia.
Laplap: A length of cloth wrapped around the lower or entire body. Introduced by Europeans offended by traditional dress.
Expatriate: Non-citizen residents. Examples include expatriate workers, their families and long-term fieldworkers. Tourists are rarely referred to as expatriates.

Trobriand Islands: A group of coral islands off the eastern tip of New Guinea. Made famous by anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski.
Melanesian Big Man: A type of leader who achieves influence through generosity and being at the center of a large network of kin and other exchange partners.

Bundi: Bundi is the location of a catholic mission and government patrol that oversee in part the religious and political affairs of the Gende.
Upper Bundi: Refers to Gende villages higher up in the mountains than those located closer to Bundi. An example of an Upper Bundi village is Yandera, a day's walk from Bundi and located in the shadow of the Chimbu Ridge (10,000 feet).
Lower Bundi: Those villages closer to Bundi.
Missus: A tok pisin word used to refer to European women or any Papua New Guinean woman who assumes an air of superiority or Western affluence.

Yandima Clan: One of two clans in Yandera village. Clans are descent groups, membership in which is determined--in the case of the Gende--through a line of males (patrilineal). Thus, a man's children are members of his clan.
Tundega Clan: One of two clans in Yandera village. The clan that adopted me as "Ruge's daughter."
Exchange: The giving and receiving of goods and services that binds members of a group to one another and establishes relations of power and influence. The Gende practice reciprocal exchange, often delayed and sometimes competitive in nature.
Goroka: A large town in Eastern Highlands Province, Goroka has been a popular destination of Gende migrants since its beginning as a small Australian outpost in the 1930's and 1940's.
Squatter Settlement: Clusters of shanties and self-help housing--called squatter settlements--are located in every town and city in Papua New Guinea. "Squatter" is a misnomer, however, as residents in most settlements pay rent to local landowners.
Okiufa: The name of a small Gende settlement on the outskirts of Goroka.
Air Niugini: Papua New Guinea's national airline.
Port Moresby: The capital of Papua New Guinea.
Mount Wilhelm: The highest mountain in Papua New Guinea (15,000 feet). Mount Wilhelm is the southwestern corner of Gende territory.

Reflective Fieldwork Accounts: Accounts that consider the impact of gender and other differences on both the lives of the people being studied and the ethnographic enterprise.