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The intensification of rural-urban networks in the Markham Valley, Papua New Guinea. From gold-prospecting to large-scale capitalist projects
Abstract
This article presents an account of the spread and intensification of socio-economic links between a rural hinterland and the expanding city of Lae, Papua New Guinea (PNG), since the early twentieth century. Long-term ethnographic research in the Wampar area of the Markham Valley, close to Lae, has shown how variable the pace, intensity and extent of change in relations between an urban centre and its neighbouring hinterland can be. Based on fieldwork in the Wampar settlements and the village of Gabsongkeg, the article describes the role of novel socio-economic forms (mission stations, commodity production, markets, mining projects) and transport infrastructure (airstrips, highways) in processes of differential peri-urbanisation. The specific location and circumstances of the introduction of these forms has had the effect of differentiating a social field that previously lacked significant social contrasts, positioning settlements and groups in relation to state and international institutions in ways that have impacted on social reproduction under colonial and post-colonial conditions. The article also discusses the role of people’s expectations in the creation and exploitation of economic opportunities that have the potential to entrench existing socio-economic inequalities further. Not surprisingly, the ethnography suggests that the size of the areas of land and capital investments entailed in novel economic activities has had decisive socio-economic effects locally. This suggests therefore that the large-scale capital-intensive projects being proposed in the region are already reconfiguring regional social fields. Nevertheless, the specificities of space, time and sequencing of developments are proving crucial to the manner in which events are unfolding, placing significant demands on the ethnographic analysis of concrete cases.
... Orogwangin land group is one of the patrilineal descent groups (or Sagaseg) of the Wampar ethnic group (Beer, 2017) whose common ancestors are Ngaodoro and his three sons Igun, Ngaengason and Eretz. The Wampar live in nine main villages located in the valleys of Markham and Wampit rivers, in the Morobe Province. ...
... Today the marriage patterns and practices have become diverse and are changing. Inter-ethnic marriages have increased, and there are also children born in wedlock (Beer, 2017). This perhaps is due to the close proximity of Markham valley to Lae and the connectivity of the Highlands Highway, and in and out migrations increasing the social and economic interactions and networking of the Wamper with other ethnicities. ...
... The Orogwangin land group began thinking about the idea of registering their land group in 2005 when it got involved in the cocoa cash crop business. Usually, it was the male leaders exploring options of using their customary land in some business enterprise (Bacalzo et al., 2014;Beer, 2017). It was after the passing of the amendments to the LGI Act in 2009, and through land reform awareness that the Orogwangin land group applied to register its group in 2015, and obtained it's ILG certificate in 2016. ...
Land reforms for addressing economic issues are required to conform to equity, socio-cultural and other landa governance concerns. This article reviews customary/communal tenure, and land reform mechanisms for optimising economic and social outcomes for countries where this type of tenure predominates. The experiences of two land groups, the Orogwangin and the Polulve Mahevie, that have engaged with the group incorporation mechanism of addressing customary communal tenure in Papua New Guinea are described and discussed. It was found that these narrow legal reform mechanisms distort customary/communal practices, forcing conflicts and subsequent subdivisions of groups in some instances. The lack of capacity of the state institutions to service the new requirements for maintaining the recording of group characteristics is notable as well. Vulnerable groups are left to negotiate with powerful business entities for appropriate terms and compensation for use of their land.
... The Highlands Highway continuously extended and intensified rural-urban networks (Beer 2017). Many Wampar, then, have produced for the local markets and the main market in Lae for decades. ...
... Gabsongkeg village has the largest public market (Nadzab Maket) in the Wampar area. It is a bus stop for drivers going along the highway to the Highlands and also a waiting area for passengers and their family and friends waiting at Nadzab airport-Lae's official airport located at a walking distance from the market since 1977 (Beer 2017). Communal 'village markets' are controlled by respected and influential village elders, often with senior positions in the church, but this control is sometimes contested. ...
Roads are one of the most salient symbols of development and modernity for rural citizens of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Multinational corporations, members of parliament, and villagers frequently point to roads as a key to development. However, while roads routinely improve the incomes of those connected, many of their effects are far less scrutable. Here, we examine the economic and social consequences of two roads, the Wau‐Bulolo Highway and Highlands Highway, for two villages in PNG's Morobe Province, and consider the processes that make their outcomes so different. Tracing the history of the two highways and considering a contrasting pair of case‐studies, we explore how roads simultaneously bolster income and drive interregional economic divergence. We demonstrate how the spatial and historical contexts the Highways run through, coupled with the relationships of patronage and dependence they rely on, produce contingent social outcomes and shape local ambivalence towards the outcomes of roads.
... They have led to increasing social inequality and disputes within lineages over the selling of land (for example, if one man sells lineage land without informing his brothers and cousins). This taboo on selling land to outsiders is thus only observed within certain lineages and sagaseg in Gabsongkeg (Beer 2017). ...
In the Markham Valley of Papua New Guinea, a Biomass Energy company is currently transforming the landscape by planting thousands of hectares of eucalyptus trees to offer a 'carbon-neutral' way of electricity generation. The company operates in concert with local Wampar landholders, offering jobs, land rents, and business opportunities. This large-scale land transformation from grassland to eucalyptus forests impacts social relations, especially those regulating access to land, and creates more and novel social conflicts within and between kin groups. By presenting four ethnographic portraits, I show how access to and exclusion from land, jobs and monetary benefits are differentially experienced, and how people negotiate these novel effects of 'intimate exclusion' occurring in their midst. There are clear trends towards alienation and exclusion of some people from land to which they formerly had access. Customary claims to usage rights are abrogated except for the primary owners of the land, and sometimes even members of the landholding lineages are deprived of receiving monetary benefits from these enterprises. Access to land, jobs and business opportunities are now governed mainly by social relations with the main decision-makers and proponents of the eucalyptus project.
... The post-war growth of infrastructure that allowed the extension and intensification of rural-urban networks and inter-regional trade in PNG, and the ability of Wampar to produce premium quality betel nut ('Markham meat'), made the Wampar comparatively wealthy, especially after the Highlands Highway was completed and upgraded to facilitate freight traffic (Beer 2017). Wampar women had a central and active role in the betel trade: they planted palms in their gardens and around houses, harvested-with the help of skilled children-the nuts and carried them to market and home. ...
This article historicises gender relations among Wampar speakers in New Guinea (PNG). It analyses three interconnected female biographies to show how historical background interacts with current large‐scale capitalist projects to exacerbate social inequalities. One biography exemplifies linkages between Christianisation, education and political representation; the second focuses on inheritance, access to land, and dogmas about patriliny; the third describes a woman's unfavourable position within a sibling set and her access to benefits from land leases. Support by their social network, sibling relations, birth order and, today, marital alliances, are key factors in women's success in the running of businesses, negotiating land disputes, and obtaining representation in political fora set up to deal with social problems. I demonstrate how older differentiations are reproduced as novel inequalities in political representation and in access to land and wealth. These result in new forms of exclusion that differentiate men and women, but which also differentiate life‐chances among women.
The Ramu valley watershed presents a wider fertile landscape around the Ramu river located in northern Papua New Guinea (PNG) near the Bismarck Sea and the Finisterre Range. It’s close to the cities of Lae and Madang. Ramu valley has been occupied by humans for a long time and was affected by several cultural waves of immigration over the last thousands of years. Low elevational forests got turned into grasslands but the area overall remained fertile and sustainable. It was an easy and logical place for colonialism to start, and the region was affected accordingly. In the last 100 years, commercial entities started to develop there and the region has coconut palm plantations and sugarcane and cattle operations, for instance. A company called Ramu Sugar became dominant in the PNG market and built infrastructure such as a hydrodam needed for their operations. However, none of those efforts catering international commodity markets offered stable income, and a certain boom-and-bust cycle occurred affecting the region and its sustainability overall. Following neoliberal policies, various subsequent patterns and actions occurred to maintain viable income but instead the region experiences a generic environmental and social decay requiring policing from Australia and other outside measures, non really showed success long-term or relevant signs of sustainability.KeywordsPapua New Guinea (PNG)Ramu ValleyRamu SugarSugar PlantationsNatural resourcesPacific boom-and-bust
Papua New Guinea (PNG) as a ‘modern’ (industrial) nation was fabricated, primarily a compromise by the colonial powers and a deal carried out by Australia serving their own purposes, e.g. to save money and maintain control and income, all approved by the U.N. In such a world fabric, driven by just a few but permanent security council seats in charge of world power, there is little that nations like PNG can do and truly operate in. They are to ‘participate and playing the game,’ as Prime Minister Julius Chan expressed. However, people of PNG cannot fairly participate in the global markets, nor can PNG as a nation and democracy embedded in the British Commonwealth lead by the late queen from London. Many colonial and powerful nations determine the shape of PNG, its set up, industry and business, none are really doing so well or are sustainable themselves. Man-made climate change remains unresolved. That is certainly true for mining, forestry, farming and fisheries sectors. A similar situation can be stated for PNG’s neighbors making the region overall desperate and affecting its wilderness of world proportions. While rural PNG is widely sustainable the outlook for PNG and its role in the ‘modern’ global agenda remains miniscule. Consequently, the people of PNG will retreat into their globally passive but well-proven action of the Wantok tribal system within ecological bounds available to them.KeywordsPapua New Guinea (PNG)GlobalizationInternational politicsGlobal justice
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