Historical Vines: Enga Networks of Exchange, Ritual, and Warfare in Papua New Guinea

Strathern, Andrew; Strathern, Pamela J. Stewart; Wiessner, Polly; Tumu, Akii; Pupu, Nitze

doi:10.2307/2661338

Cited by 20 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Regarding Sahlins' typology, the features that define the two sociopolitical types, in reality, appear together, as is attested by numerous ethnographies of Melanesian communities. Indeed, some studies have noted the coexistence of different types of leadership and their respective principles in one single community (Ballard 1995;Chowning 1979;Dousset 2018a;Hviding 1996;Keesing 1985Keesing , 1997Lilley 1985;Lowman-Vayda 1971;Oliver 1955;Roscoe 2000;Ross 1973Ross , 1978Wiessner and Tumu 1998).…”

Section: Limitations Of Sahlins' Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the Enga, for instance, Meggitt (1971:191) outlines that leadership is ascribed though not inherited. Moreover, to correct the idea that inherited leaders do not exist among Papuan speakers (Pawley 2020), one must recall that there was an inherited position among the Enga, the Watenge or great war leader (Wiessner and Tumu 1998:290) or, among the Huli, the agali haguene (Ballard 1995).…”

Section: Sahlins' Model: Its Criticisms and Usesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Achievement, Ascription, and Mana: A Step beyond Binary Opposition in Studying Leadership in Oceania

Faucounau

2023

Oceania

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper critiques the recent use of Marshall Sahlins' model, which opposes big men to chiefs to establish a contrast between Austronesian and Non-Austronesian communities in Oceania. By reviewing Sahlins' model and drawing upon Oceania-wide ethnographic work, I argue that the two opposed paradigms underlying Sahlins' model of leadership, namely achievement and ascription, are in fact entangled in practices and in ideologies. I contend that the cooccurrence of 'achievement' and 'ascription' is widely supported by ethnographies of Oceania; that these two features can simultaneously characterize a single leadership position; and that this dual aspect of leadership is conveyed in Remote Oceania by the indigenous concept of mana. This suggests that the historical analysis of leadership in Oceania should move beyond this the achievement/ascription dichotomy. Thus, instead of mapping the region in terms of their absence or presence, it is more productive to analyse how these features articulate, or to focus on other aspects of leadership in Oceania such as the relation between leaders and deities or ancestors.

show abstract

Section: Limitations Of Sahlins' Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sahlins' Model: Its Criticisms and Usesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Achievement, Ascription, and Mana: A Step beyond Binary Opposition in Studying Leadership in Oceania

Faucounau

2023

Oceania

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Institutions evolve by both agentic and non-agentic processes. Again, even simple societies have deliberative political institutions that lead to the evolution of rather sophisticated collective behaviour [99,100]. However, non-agentic processes also play an important role, even in complex societies.…”

Section: Institutional Evolution By Agentic Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agentic processes in cultural evolution: relevance to Anthropocene sustainability

Richerson,

Boyd,

Efferson

2023

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Humans have evolved culturally and perhaps genetically to be unsustainable. We exhibit a deep and consistent pattern of short-term resource exploitation behaviours and institutions. We distinguish agentic and naturally selective forces in cultural evolution. Agentic forces are quite important compared to the blind forces (random variation and natural selection) in cultural evolution and gene-culture coevolution. We need to use the agentic policy-making processes to evade the impact of blind natural selection. We argue that agentic forces became important during our Pleistocene history and into the Anthropocene present. Human creativity in the form of deliberate innovations and the deliberate selective diffusion of technical and social advances drove this process forward for a long time before planetary limits became a serious issue. We review models with multiple positive feedbacks that roughly fit this observed pattern. Policy changes in the case of large-scale existential threats like climate change are made by political and diplomatic agents grasping and moving levers of institutional power in order to avoid the operation of blind natural selection and agentic forces driven by narrow or short-term goals. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis’.

show abstract

“…access to spoils, or the status that may come from being associated with a prominent warrior. At the same time, some individuals may benefit more from peace than others, either by using the peace process to advance their political or economics aims or establishing themselves as a prominent individual who is able to negotiate for peace (Wiessner, 1998). 4 These competing tensions between war and peace create a complex social dynamic where individuals or factions may simultaneously benefit from war while recognizing the harms that come from increased warfare, including retaliation, loss of intergroup trade, and (1) Sama Dialut -A coconut-splitting ritual ceremony involving prayer that culminates in enemy parties resuming speech with each other (Sather, 2003).…”

Section: The Tensions Between War and Peacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Intergroup exchange allows us to build the cultural technologies to adapt to a seemingly endless variety of ecological and social environments. Periods of peace may also fuel increased social complexity due to expansion of exchange between groups that would otherwise be in conflict (Wiessner, 1998. The challenge of building peaceful intergroup relationships is formidable because peace requires coordinating the interests of every individual to favor nonaggression, while intergroup aggression can be unilaterally initiated but subsequently involve the entire group.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The evolution of peace

Glowacki¹

2022

Behav Brain Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While some species have affiliative and even cooperative interactions between individuals of different social groups, humans are alone in having durable, positive-sum, interdependent relationships across unrelated social groups. Our capacity to have harmonious relationships that cross group boundaries is an important aspect of our species’ success, allowing for the exchange of ideas, materials, and ultimately enabling cumulative cultural evolution. Knowledge about the conditions required for peaceful intergroup relationships is critical for understanding the success of our species and building a more peaceful world. How do humans create harmonious relationships across group boundaries and when did this capacity emerge in the human lineage? Answering these questions involves considering the costs and benefits of intergroup cooperation and aggression, for oneself, one's group, and one's neighbor. Taking a game theoretical perspective provides new insights into the difficulties of removing the threat of war and reveals an ironic logic to peace—the factors that enable peace also facilitate the increased scale and destructiveness of conflict. In what follows, I explore the conditions required for peace, why they are so difficult to achieve, and when we expect peace to have emerged in the human lineage. I argue that intergroup cooperation was an important component of human relationships and a selective force in our species history in the past 300 thousand years. But the preconditions for peace only emerged in the past 100 thousand years and likely coexisted with intermittent intergroup violence which would have also been an important and selective force in our species’ history.

show abstract

Historical Vines: Enga Networks of Exchange, Ritual, and Warfare in Papua New Guinea

Cited by 20 publications

References 0 publications

Achievement, Ascription, and Mana: A Step beyond Binary Opposition in Studying Leadership in Oceania

Achievement, Ascription, and Mana: A Step beyond Binary Opposition in Studying Leadership in Oceania

Agentic processes in cultural evolution: relevance to Anthropocene sustainability

The evolution of peace

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About