Gainj Kinship and Social Organization.

Abstract

This dissertation describes kinship and social organization among a group of tribal horticulturalists, the Gainj of the Upper Tagui Valley, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. The aims of this study are: (1) to describe traditional Gainj kinship, social organization and l and tenure as they functioned to promote intergroup peace by creating overlapping, intersecting allegiances between members of different local groups; (2) to examine the different roles played by men and women in establishing the networks that fostered peaceful relations; (3) to elucidate the importance of food as the shared common substance that creates kinship in Gainj culture; (4) to suggest the ways in which the continued operation of traditional social organization and l and tenure in the early stages of economic development may produce radically different effects, including l and shortage and incipient stratification in a previously egalitarian society; and (5) to consider the future implications of further economic development for male-female roles, marriage patterns and the basis upon which significant social groups are founded. The study is based on ten months of fieldwork among the Gainj in 1977 and 1978. Data are derived from a complete census of 1318 people, family histories, interviews and participant observation. Archival records, census and patrol reports were used for pre-1977 information. Nutritional and medical surveys and anthropometric measurements provided further data. Traditionally, dispersed cognatic kinship, patrivirilocal residence and parish exogamy served to provide individual parishes with resident male warriors and to increase the inter-parish interests of parish members. Combined with a l and tenure system based on dispersed kinship ties, these factors served to reduce overt conflict between parishes by providing mediators whose interests and allegiances cut across parishes, and to reduce the effects of conflicts when they did occur. The traditional l and tenure system operated effectively for a society whose l and base was sufficient, given the simple swiddening technology they employed. In 1972, the Gainj began cultivation of a permanent cash crop, coffee. Drawing on the histories of similar cash-cropping programs in other highl and areas, the study examines the potential problems of the continued operation of traditional systems in a cash-cropping economy.