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contested order: gender and society in the southern New Guinea Highlands
Author(s) -
LEDERMAN RENA
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1989.16.2.02a00030
Subject(s) - clan , sociology , argument (complex analysis) , constitution , sociality , social order , gender studies , kinship , social organization , new guinea , social relation , general partnership , ethnology , anthropology , political science , law , politics , ecology , biochemistry , chemistry , biology
A clan‐centered view of Highland New Guinea social structure limits the understanding of male/female relations, as well as of relations between leaders and ordinary people. In some Highlands societies, exchange partnership networks constitute an alternative form of sociality to clanship. In the Mendi Valley of the Southern Highlands Province, the practical logic of network relationships (in which both men and women participate) and of clanship (represented as an exclusively “male” relationship) are partially complementary, partially at odds. This ambiguity defines an arena for argument among social actors concerning the constitution of their social order. In places like Mendi, the organization of clan‐sponsored events (like pig festivals) by leaders and other men is a contingent and contested achievement.[Melanesia, social structure, exchange, gender, inequality]