Hahalis and the Labour of Love: A Social Movement on Buka Island

329 Pages·1992·68.395 MB·English

by  Max Rimoldi

Hahalis and the Labour of Love
Explorations in Anthropology
A University College London Series
Series Editors: Barbara Bender, John Gledhill and
Bruce Kapferer
Hahalis and the Labour
of Love
A social movement on Buka Island
Max and Eleanor Rimoldi
I~
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LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 1992 by Berg Publishers
Published 2020 by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
©Max and Eleanor Rimoldi 1992
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Rimoldi, Max. Rimoldi, Eleanor
Hahalis and the labour of love: A social movement
on Buka Island. - (Explorations in anthropology)
I. Title II. Series
305.89
ISBN 13: 978-0-8549-6704-9 (hbk)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rimoldi, Max.
Hahalis and the labour of love: a social movement on Buka Island
Max and Eleanor Rimoldi.
p. cm. - (Explorations in anthropology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-85496--704-4 : $30.00
1. Ethnology-Papua New Guinea-Buka Island. 2. Social
movements-Papua New Guinea-Buka Island. 3. Buka Island
(Papua New Guinea)--Social conditions. 4. Buka Island (Papua
New Guinea)--Politics and government. 5. Buka Island (Papua
New Guinea)--History.
I. Rimoldi, Eleanor. II. Title. m. Series.
DU740.42.R561992
995.3--dc20 91-16301
CIP
We dedicate this book to the memory of John
Teosin, who died in 1990 before the isolation of
Bougainville was ended; and to all those who
entrusted him with their power

Contents
Preface ix
Map of Duka Island xvi
Introduction 1
1. Social movements 24
2. The political focus of communities of production 58
3. Baton for baton: retribution and new stances 105
4. Power and the person: the negotiation of nitsunono 156
5. Custom and Law: a quick blow 198
6. Corning outside and politics within 219
7. Judgement for judgement: baru 265
Epilogue 296
Bibliography 298
Index 305
vii

Preface
Our narrative concerns a period of history on Bougainville,
Papua New Guinea, which can be seen as the incorporation of a
peripheral system into tighter association with a national polity
and a world economy. Our focus is on a period of colonial and
post-colonial history which still has contemporary significance.
The ethnographic present is essentially the 1970s and changes
since then are not pursued even though they have been rapid.
It might be said that the issues raised are those of class and
culture; but it would be better to say that we address the way
that some Buka - in particular the widely-known movement, the
Hahalis Welfare Society (the Welfare) anticipated class and cul-
ture. Our concern with historical agency in their villages, as
their relationships to global systems change, does indeed pre-
sent both their relentless resistance to incorporation and a re-
flexivity in reconstructing culture which displaces any idea that
tradition is a coherent resource brought into play to match the
instrumental demands of incorporation.
The anticipations of increasing inequality and the pressing
contradictions of tradition are represented by the Welfare in
variously structured appeals to brotherhood and for openness to
the outside world. At the same time its programmes rested on
the reinforcement of responsibilities that went with the social
distinctions preserved within local society and the autonomy of
local power with which to relate to the wider world.
The reflexivity, we would argue, is commensurate with the
assumption of power with which to enact a demonstration of
new meanings demanded by the colonial situation. But we have
also to give attention to the ever-present problem that the Buka
in the divisions amongst themselves. We think that it is possible
to argue that the struggles to overcome the contradictions in the
lived culture of colonial society, the conflicts which occur
and reappear in transformed historical circumstances, are the
ix