Anthony J. Pickles PhD thesis

273 Pages·2013·7.01 MB·English

THE PATTERN CHANGES CHANGES : GAMBLING VALUE IN
HIGHLAND PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Anthony J. Pickles
A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD
at the
University of St Andrews
2013
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The Pattern Changes Changes: Gambling Value in
Highland Papua New Guinea

Anthony J. Pickles

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of
Doctorate in Philosophy
at the
University of St Andrews

Date of Submission

14th September 2012
1. Candidate’s declarations:

I, Anthony Pickles, hereby certify that this thesis, which is approximately 79,000 words in length,
has been written by me, that it is the record of work carried out by me and that it has not been
submitted in any previous application for a higher degree.

I was admitted as a research student in October, 2008 and as a candidate for the degree of
PhD in March, 2009; the higher study for which this is a record was carried out in the University
of St Andrews between 2008 and 2012.

Date ………………… signature of candidate …………………………………..

2. Supervisor’s declaration:

I hereby certify that the candidate has fulfilled the conditions of the Resolution and Regulations
appropriate for the degree of PhD in the University of St Andrews and that the candidate is
qualified to submit this thesis in application for that degree.

Date ………………… signature of candidate …………………………………..

3. Permission for electronic publication: (to be signed by both candidate and supervisor)

In submitting this thesis to the University of St Andrews I understand that I am giving permission
for it to be made available for use in accordance with the regulations of the University Library for
the time being in force, subject to any copyright vested in the work not being affected thereby. I
also understand that the title and the abstract will be published, and that a copy of the work may
be made and supplied to any bona fide library or research worker, that my thesis will be
electronically accessible for personal or research use unless exempt by award of an embargo
as requested below, and that the library has the right to migrate my thesis into new electronic
forms as required to ensure continued access to the thesis. I have obtained any third-party
copyright permissions that may be required in order to allow such access and migration, or have
requested the appropriate embargo below.

The following is an agreed request by candidate and supervisor regarding the electronic
publication of this thesis:

Access to printed copy and electronic publication of thesis through the University of St Andrews.

Date …………… signature of candidate …………………………….

signature of supervisor …………………………..

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Abstract

This thesis explores the part gambling plays in an urban setting in Highland Papua New Guinea.
Gambling did not exist in (what is now) Goroka Town before European contact, nor Papua New
Guinea more broadly, but when I conducted fieldwork in 2009-2010 it was an inescapable part
of everyday life. One card game proliferated into a multitude of games for different situations
and participants, and was supplemented with slot machines, sports betting, darts, and bingo
and lottery games.

One could well imagine gambling becoming popular in societies new to it, especially coming on
the back of money, wage-work and towns. Yet the popularity of gambling in the region is
surprising to social scientists because the peoples now so enamoured by gambling are famous
for their love of competitively giving things away, not competing for them. Gambling spread
while gifting remained a central part of the way people did transactions. This thesis resists
juxtaposing gifting and selfish acquisition. It shows how their opposition is false; that gambling
is instead a new analytic technique for manipulating the value of gifts and acquisitions alike,
through the medium of money.

Too often gambling takes a familiar form in analyses: as the sharp end of capitalism, or the
benign, chance-led redistributor of wealth in egalitarian societies. The thesis builds an
ethnographic understanding of gambling, and uses it to interrogate theories of gambling,
money, and Melanesian anthropology. In so doing, the thesis speaks to a trend in Melanesian
anthropology to debate whether monetisation and urbanisation has brought about a radical
split in peoples’ understandings of the world. Dealing with some of the most starkly ‘modern’
material I find a process of inclusive indigenous materialism that consumes the old and the
new alike, turning them into a model for action in a dynamic money-led world.

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Acknowledgements

Theses are “written” by one person; they are made by many. There are the people who read it,
proofread it, comment, criticise, support, love, nourish, pay; and in social anthropology there
are the people whose generosity crafted its subject matter. With so many different kinds of
debt, ordering them feels like prioritising breath over bread. I have therefore organised my
thanks in roughly sequential order, and I dedicate my thesis to them all.

My family is fractious, that more than anything else probably led me here; but their support
was always unconditional. As each year passes, each defining shift; or struggle; or loss; or
addition; each alienation and re-affirmation, family means more to me. My mother’s love has
always been unique. In this work I have come to know that my father and I share very much.

A lust for anthropology began immediately during undergraduate studies at University College
London, and took the well-trodden path from biological to social. I had the audacity to claim I
was an anthropologist during my first term; I am still fantasising today. It was not until my final
year, and Martin Holbraad’s course, that I knew what kind of anthropologist I wanted to be. As
my M.Res and M.Phil supervisor, Martin guided me towards gambling from an interest in
number. Choosing Papua New Guinea was entirely down to reading Jadran Mimica’s
Intimations of Infinity (1988); it has had an enduring impact on my anthropology. From then
Susanne Küchler (my second supervisor at UCL) and Allen Abramson schooled me in
Melanesia. Martin went beyond the bounds of supervision, putting in long hours as Susanne,
Martin and I put together grant proposals for larger projects based upon my idea; sadly they
were in vain.

I was awarded the Emslie Horniman Prize for Anthropological Fieldwork by the Royal
Anthropological Institute, which paid for a computer for my fieldwork, and more importantly
gave me hope of finding funding when the outlook was bleak. After a number of setbacks, it
became clear I could not get the funding I needed to complete my studies at UCL, and it was
Martin who suggested I get in touch with Dr. Adam Reed at St Andrews. I consider it the
highest praise to say that was his best piece of advice.
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In large part the financial means to conduct my research came about through the resolution
and commitment of the members of the University of St Andrews’ Centre for Pacific Studies.
CPS were excited by my project and offered me a studentship waving my fees. Even before
Adam Reed, Tony Crook and Christina Toren gave their all to help me secure a studentship, I
had determined to move to St Andrews, such was their overwhelming commitment. My
research was financially supported by the Economic and Social Research Council of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland through a +3 Studentship won with the help of CPS. I arrived in St
Andrews with everything going for me, and Adam has worked tirelessly to help me build on
that position, pushing me to publish, to apply, to meet and to discuss at every opportunity. I
could not wish for a more dedicated, rigorous, or inspiring supervisor. When PhD’s talk of their
supervisors (as they frequently do!), I find myself boasting. I used to quote the time I sent a
chapter at 9.30am and received comments at 4.45 that day; in the run up to submission he
beat his own record, which now stands at 7 hours and 1 minute. I think that says it all.

To the people of Goroka and Papua New Guinea I owe the greatest debt. The National
Research Institute, and especially Georgie Kaupu, aided me in gaining a research visa. Rex
Matang of the University of Goroka helped with the process, met me at the airport, found me
my place to stay and electrified me with his passion for ethnomathematics. His loss is great,
but his legacy will be felt for a long time. In Goroka I had many friends, and an adopted family
whom I could never repay. They must remain anonymous here, but they are not forgotten.
Loui Ipatu (whom I employed to carry out survey work on my behalf) was a source of
camaraderie at times of loneliness. Particular thanks are due to Idris, Evelyn, Osama, Michael,
Peter, Alfons, Simon, Nigel, Charlie, Kripel, Pastor Simon, Jeffrey, Alfred, Anna, Richard, John,
Paps Keis, Helen, Blacky, David, Boski, Pamela, Franziska, Johntu, Kenox, Bob, Roni, Julie,
Rocky, Christine, and Peter Purari. Chris Little, who did his fieldwork immediately after I left,
stayed in my room, inherited my pots and spatula, and was adopted by my own adopted
father. I feel tied to him. Franziska Herbst was a source of support during my stay. The nature
of my fieldwork also meant that Gorokan strangers gave me much, often without knowing it:
for many of them it was enough that I was there. I thank them. Those who have experienced
this will know how wonderful it is. The majority immediately identified with my research and
opened up to tell me all they could. I hope that my exposition here lays a foundation so that I
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may answer their desires in the future. To the gamblers: Yupela stap gut, sindaun, hamamas, o
bom bai bomim yu!

Help has come from many corners while I wrote. I have wonderful colleagues at St Andrews,
particularly Chris, Fiona, Simon, and Victor. Chris Gregory has helped me in various guises since
we met in Cambridge in 2011. Upon Adam’s advice, in 2011 I contacted Joel Robbins of
University of California San Diego and introduced myself, asking if he would sponsor me for an
application to the ESRC for an Overseas Institutional Visit. From that time Joel did everything
he could to assist me, finding office space while on sabbatical, putting in a word for me to
present at the University of Virginia and University of Toronto, and finding a place on a panel
at the American Anthropological Association of that year. Rupert Stasch was equally generous
with his time and support, most notably organising a special Pacific-Amazon discussion day.
Julien Clement was a great interlocutor, friend, and surf-buddy while I was there. Kathy Creely
of UCSD’s Melanesian Archive was instrumental in helping me to track down information from
every conceivable source; it was her help that largely led to the form of my Prologue. I
supplemented that research at the Cambridge University Library and Haddon Library. For
similar services I would like to thank participants of the Association of Social Anthropologists of
Oceania’s email list (ASAONET).

I had even more good fortune when I met Steffen Dalsgaard in Manchester. He suggested I
come to Aarhus as a visiting Ph.D. and secured funding for my three month visit from the
Aarhus University Research Foundation, to whom I am most grateful. It was there that the first
half of my thesis and a publication now under review were redrafted and infinitely improved.
And in Steffen and the rest of the Aarhus posse I found great warmth and intellectual
stimulation.

Versions of these chapters were presented at University of California San Diego, the University
of Virginia, the University of Toronto, Cambridge University Social Anthropology Seminar
series, University of St Andrews (both Departmental Senior Seminar and Centre for Amerindian
Studies), and the Centre de Recherche et de Documentation sur l'Océanie (Université de
Provence). These immeasurably strengthened the chapters. Three anonymous reviewers and
the editor of the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute also helped tighten up a version
of chapter six when it was submitted as an article. For reading and proofreading chapters in
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the final days, I thank (in chapter order) Simon Pickles, Christopher Hewlett, Bronwyn
Johnston, Alistair Rankin, and Chloe Nahum-Claudel.

When I was writing up I fell in love with Chloe. We share so much, and have worked to share
even more. We wrote up together; she shared my lows, my application woes, and battled my
language problems with me. Together we talk through our theses, ideas, politics, futures, and
the best way to do spaghetti carbonara. She puts up with my unrelenting silliness, and my
ever-present work-guilt. My thesis did not begin with her, but it ends as we find new frontiers.

With all this assistance, any remaining shortcomings are very much my own.

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Contents

PROLOGUE Cardography 1
Gambling: Contemporary of the Gift 6
Goroka (Plus One) Gambling 16

ONE False Questions and Ethnographic Theory: Michael Makes a Bet 24
False Questions 26
Michael and the Tyranny of Denomination 32
Scenario One 35
Scenario Two 42
A ‘Look’ at Money and Value 48
Chapter Outlines 57

TWO The Pattern Changes Changes, or How to Win at Cards 61
Thought vs. Speed: The Games 67
How to Play… 74
1. Kwin – Cornering 75
2. Bom – Think Fast 90
How to Win at Cards 99
Conclusion 104

THREE Challenge: The Fastest Money in Goroka 106
Chalinj (‘Challenge’) 110
Street Marketing as ‘Logic’ 118
Marketing and Card Gambling, Kindred Modes of Attraction 123
Produce Markets in Passing 127
Kakaruk and Chuave Markets 130
Chalinj Revisited 136
Conclusion 140
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FOUR To be a Big-Shot: ‘Big-Men’, Pokies and Money 143
‘Big-men’ and “Finance” 146
A Night at the Pokies 152
Big-Men & “Lesser Men” 157
How to Play… Pokies 162
“Financial” Winnings 169
Conclusion 174

FIVE The Origin of Pooling 176
Pooling – Some Familiar Scenes 179
Origins of Origin 189
Pooling – State of Origin Bets 193
1. Collective Bets 195
2. Big Bets and Satellites 202
Conclusion 207

SIX Pocket Calculator 210
A Pocketful 216
Simon’s Skills 224
In Each Other’s Pockets 232
Conclusion: Pocketing the Difference 234

APPENDIX 237

REFERENCES 243

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