Who and what is a landowner? Mythology and marking the ground in a Papua New Guinea mining project

Understanding ‘resource’ conflicts in Papua New Guinea

“…Local identity itself becomes contested as being Porgeran is now important because of the potential and actual benefits that flow to 'the Porgeran landowners'. Debates, disputes and conflicts over belonging and membership are frequent in large part because the traditional rules are often loose or vague and hence are being reshaped by the communities (as well as by governments and companies) on the run (see Jorgensen, 1997;Rumsey and Weiner, 2001;Ballard and Banks, 2003). Given what is at stake, it is no surprise that this process of redefining the 'local' can occasionally turn violent.…”

“…The process by which often malleable and complex rules of 'belonging' become simplified lists of 'landowners', and social boundaries become cartographic ones, has been the cause of conflict at all major projects (see e.g. Jorgensen, 1997). Clearly here it is local understandings of belonging and identity which become the sites of contestationsthe formal, official 'rules' are relatively simple, but the interpretation and negotiation of these rules by local groups grounded in the norms and values of their social universe are highly unlikely to match these.…”

Powers of Exclusion in Melanesia

“…Even in these cases, it was common practice for people to be adopted or incorporated into groups to which they had no 'right of membership' by birth. But there were many other cases in which the transmission of membership between generations did not follow such simple rules, or in which there were no such rules at all because 'descent groups' had no social or economic function (Ogan 1971;Wagner 1974;Guddemi 1997;Jorgensen 1997;Ernst 1999;Filer and Lowe 2011). And even where they did have a social or economic function, there is no reason to assume that this function was primarily defined by their collective ownership of exclusive property rights, rather than by the substance of the transactions that took place between the members of these groups.…”

Globalisation and Governance in the Pacific Islands : State, Society and Governance in Melanesia

“…Rather than existing as the sole cadastral markers on the landscape, though, these lease boundaries intersect with the genealogically grounded lines of landownership around the mine sites (for in-depth anthropological accounts of the basis for these genealogical lines at Porgera see the PhD dissertations of Jacka (2003) and Golub (2005). Biersack (1999) and Jackson and Banks (2002) provide accessible introductions, while Jorgenson (1997) provides a more general statement on the issue). Many of these socially derived boundaries are natural features (ridges, rivers, etc.…”