‘age have ceased (0 travel temporarily or permanent’ (Definition of the term ‘gypsies aed Trae fr the purposes ofthe Housing Act 2004, ODPM: np: vwcommuniis gov uk/pubi01/Defitionofthetermeypsesand uavelesforthepurpossetheHovsingAct2004PDF294KC iL 1630p. Teremains to be seen whether the new measures willimprove the stun, Chapter 8 ‘Land doesn’t come from your mother, she didn’t make it with her hands’ Challenging matriliny in Papua New Guinea Melissa Demian Introduction In November of 1969, ASS0.000 was pid by the Australi colonial amine tation to numberof landowners inthe Su census dision of Mile Bay District now Province), Papua New Guinea, inexchangs or tibet extraction Fights The government pao officer atthe time, one Join Dalerson. noted in his snl report tat there was some disstsfation among “people ‘belonging to one of the Cans holding ful ights oer te timber in questcn ‘but residing in another village at the time of purchase thereby receving mo ‘monetiry Compensation” (Belderson 1970: 9}. He also remarked that one Plantation owner’ atthe vilage of Malnwateexpresed concern that be wouldo't be able co log because the “ee” owners ofthe land In question hada’ been pid (197: 10). However, Blderson wrote that "Overall satisfac ion withthe sale was expresed nonetheless, an he impresion gained was that the pyees are now waiting patently forthe Governments second move tose ifs assy apis frst (1970 10) ‘Twelve years later a report written asa result of «sci feasibility study {or the intradution of ei pain tothe province, the anropologst Michael Young noted thi lind tenure among the people of the southern railand was remarkably “insecure in comparison with the flnd peoples with whom head the mos experience (Young 198115). By insacriy’ he meant the Fesiblity with whith fsod could be transmitted. Although the default is inheritance through the mae, several mechanisms erst for obaiing se Fights and even permanent” raster of ind ownership through the fthe ‘oF more precisely. fom the mother's matilieage to the father's. As one of his informants told him, "We hve to many ways of geting land (1981: 15, ‘sophasis in orginal. Young noted that the ase was not simply onc of ‘mtrlnel versus patrines nheritane, but also one of mth Historical ‘elatonshis to the land. The Goodenough Islanders with whom he had worked before ould be claimed to heve a more ‘secur’ or stable’ system of Jand tenure not only because patrliny and vilocalty meant thatthe sue lineage remained onthe sameland for generation afer generation, but because156 Meliss Doman cach patilineage could cluim its origin ina cave opening on tat lad. Origin ‘Sceounts among mini peoples such a8 Sua can be far more ambiguous, 51 will ustrate ‘When fst went to work nthe rea in 1996, I had bee invited by local sotkit and sometime politician named Matilda Placapo, who told me on Several occasions that my jab would be to reord “the matte kinship’ Her use ofthis phrase ws larly shorthand reference to something more compet, and in tue Papua New Guinean Fashion she left it to me to work ‘ou ha tvs. My eventual conclusion was that she peroeived Susu mst- ‘ling’ to bender threat, pariclaly ait pertained tothe tansmission of land rights Te threat inthis case as the possiblity of land being elimed throvgh patie es, ad porhaps even leslly epstered as such although the ost of ing a surveyor and filing legal claim would have been prokibi- tive to most people onthe Suu Coast Her concerns, a8 ultimate leurned, were inflated but ot bassless.The Suau Coast had beep heily missonised i the late nineteenth aod early ewenieth centuries, and was the ste of rumerovs Austaia-owned rubber and copra plantations to which people fame from allover the region to work. Suauespeakers and their hinterland neighbours were thus exposed carly and intensively not only 0 the property regimes af Europeans but to those af people from non-matilinea] Societies ‘While ic could be argued thatthe former was more vigorously “imposed on Swit the impact of the late eould not be discounted, only forthe way in ‘which ic enabled them to imagine bow outsiders might perceive them, nd in ‘vat terme they might or might not comtine to diferente themselves from those outsiders. ‘Suu telong to « mutrlieal minority within the panoply of systems by which Papua New Guinean societies reckon descent and inheritance Matriny tends to be found among coastal and island peoples speaking Asironsian languages, while the majority of non-Austronesian language Speakers on the maipland (and on some islands) reckon inheritance along patiines! of copnati Hines® The culture aret to which Suau tclones, the ‘Masi with wo known exeptions, ently matrilines, Along with nt- ‘ily, Massim soctes are anthropologically renowned for ther elaborate ‘mortuary sequences ad thet extensive networks forthe exchange of pres gious wealth items aswel a ade in everyday goods and consumables But lundercoring discussions of thse and other phenomena isthe notion that satiny provides the ‘blueprint’ fora particular configuration of relations botween mien and women in the Mass and the forms thse veutions are Tks to take. Inthe latter half ofthe went century, anthropologists were concerned 10 elaborate the ways in which matriliy eonebuted tothe pie fal and economic inftucnce of women in Masim societies (Weiner 1976, Kahn 1986, Lepowsky 1983). Not unreasonably, all ofthese studies took as their object of analysis women’s control ovr particular material forms, fom {ood to valuables to land. For while it had to certain extent been recognised Land dows’ come fom your mothr she didnt make twit her ands’ 157 allalong that Massim women enjoyed a more active ole in the “public spe than did women in mos other Papua New Guinean societies it was not unl ‘he dual emergence of feminist nd Marxist thought in anthropology that ratrliny wis constr as playing «significant role in womet’s lve Out Side of thir obligation to reproduc the linesge and their satus ae futare ncetreses through whom property and identity would flow, Ina, unl the 1970s te focus had forthe most part been on the implica ‘ions ofmatriliny for men, Mating appeared to presenta peculiarly dificult situation for fathers, who were assumed to be torn betwoea the iatrests of their eildren and those of thei sisters’ childfen, that's, tei hers (Ricrds 1950, 246). Later studies notahlythosefom Melanesia, suggested that fathers in maclineal societies are not as confictad about their obiguions ws pve ‘uly aexeped (Clay 1977, Battogli 1985,Bolynatz 1996, Sykes 2001). The Imperatives of reciprocity trough which Tathers are compensited for thir fahering work, provisions for particular property forms that fathers can ‘wansnit to thir ow children, and new obligitions to the nation-state, all contribute toa pictur of relationships in which fathers ean quite comfortably disrbuteresoures of various kinds among their children and thelr sisters clilden. Too, the assumption that fathers invariably prefer to devolve pro= Fert tether own eden, and ere only prevented from doing so by the demands of matrilny, has ben called into question (Levine 1987), andthe ‘dea has even come full cic to met its mirror image: Matti has now teen conceived as promoting solidarity betveen lineages, rues than fission itn them, by means ofthe ‘ual rol played by men: onthe one and, ater and husband. on the other hand, mother's brother and brother" (Petersen 1982: 138). Far fom the splitting or diluting of men’s kin identity imagined inthe 1950. thir identity i ow thought 10 be doubled by the provisions of rteliny, Key to both images, of couse isthe notion that kinship ean be ded of subteicted by the rales’ of unilinesl descent. With te adition oF Subtraction of kin relations simpli the addition or subtrecton of property relations In the 19605 an apparently new problem emerge: mariny appeared tobe ‘on the verge of dsolution in the face of capitalism's inexorable advent ‘Gough 1961) I, asthe theory went, mariliny Was asocated with “abun: ance sod unrestricted aces 1 resources while capitalism wis wsociated With ‘searcty and restricted aocess t0 resources’ (Poewe 1980: 42), then Iateiny stood no chance of survival. Laer assessments of the death-ol- ‘tein announcements note tht they were based on the modernisation theory prevent atthe time (Colson 1980-358) which proceeded from the assumption onthe one hand, that capitalism would sweep all before itand, on the ether hand that it would rerodbce the social forms which had produced ii-nanely, priate property and patlinesl inheritance. Underpinning the second assumption was in tur the evolutionist sensibilities of Victorian anthropology to which the association between maciiny andthe absence of150 Molasses private property can be traced. For Lewis Heacy Morgan (ad those inle= enced by him, most notably Engels), bothkinshipand resources were imagined fo undergo incremental “enclosures progressing from state of “primitive promise’ to pohgamous matin und Baaly to monogamous pains, With the final sage eceompanied by full-blown private propery regimes (MeKinnon 2001. The Hal two sci and esonomie forms brought exch ‘other about Becase In contrast othe maternal relation, which was thought to generate natural form of soil relation inthe mates! ges (but one ‘whose maternal communalsm was inherently antithetical to ideas of indie vidual property) the paternal elation as sen a incapable of generating any sci form it property wus added 10 i (200: 284, erphasis in or Binal) A century afer Morgan, social theories sil assured that piv property an matriny were fundamentally incompatible; lthough thal belie ‘as been emperd by abundant evidence 2 the contrary it tl lurks being the concerns ef those whe would preserve’ matriliy from the depredations of capitalism ‘0 while report of mateliny’s demise hive been grey exaggerated, Iwas intl obliged, out of the absence of any ethnographic Knowle about the eople with whom [would be working, to confront the problen! as Mata Placpio presente it o mein her coded manner If people could now esi land through thee uber wha future was therefor mateine kinship rk ‘ning. and by implication, forthe poltical and eeonomicinfvence historically Wicked! by women in ths quintessentially mtiinealgomer of Pupua New Guinea? Sy consern in his chapter is therefore twofold. The ist ito ques- ion whether matriny & most accurately defined a 2 rle of inheritance in ‘Swat conecptuaiations oft. The Second isto ask whethey, nthe event that Suau land ems become a ‘chaotic a sme pri hey will mating i ‘tse acually under thea. The fst concern obviously delineate the second, Land, movement and precedence (we aaubu matinee) came from Ware Islnd, We came from Wate and later weot to Suuu. At Suau theres ite vag elled Gada. ‘Thete ul Gavi we lve, That was our grandparents out uly, At Gadi they ved un. they went 1 Pwa'a. They went to Pw ‘and then they men to Saga‘afoandived there, At Soe they lived uni ‘they had children. There was big death epider there. Finally all the peopleat Spa died, wih one lel who ame upto Buty, At Bulut "hat person lived, got married, and bad one ge eid. There was one gt ‘chika it went unl that woman ersel had chil, She also had one sl child. After that one gil child she gave birth asin: «boy», The} lived wot they bad another boy. They hed another child. Ghawede They had Giuwede. Then they had another, Waiey. Then they wanted to stay ‘ogetes, and they eume down tothe fot of Monti River They bat "Land doen't come from your mathr.he didnt mae with her hands” 159 ‘house and ime passed while they live thee, Then they gave birth to Lakapore. After that they also gave Butt me. Tey bore Tauyabyn, ‘Thore we lied and then later we Hed at whaesealled. At Puja ‘Another hamlet called Puyuwa Tete we ved unl we ved at Dae Later we lived at whattt-caled, Boboul, a place called Hoboulo, We lived at Boboulo until Mii ame and gathered us together. The gov ramet, Misibibi came and gathered us together nthe mountains were ‘ve wera ving at the ime Wecamehereto Baba. At Bwabwat ve syed toueter. (Tauyabona, 70, recounting the history of his ub) you asa person onthe Suau Coust to el you about his or her ines you il be regaled witha catalog of pases and people in the onder that ‘ey were born. Tauyubuna’snarative shifls seamlessly between progres sion fom place to place and from sibling 0 sibling euch movement between locations and persons denoting the pasage of ime. is evn birth is embed ded ina sequence of births and deaths of which the Bow of tine from past to present is consiuted. As the oldest living member of his ingge, to whom younger members could come for aeounts ike the one | baveencerpted be ‘vas more thin entitled fo locate himself ae an ancestor-io-b in his fling. “The other siblings named in the history were all den The names of wes torsand the names of abandoned hamlets form constellation of reference points rom which people cen take ther spaotemporel bearings As Kichler ‘writes of New Ieand: nthe absence of any emphasis on genetogy, the history of socal relations f embedded inthe procs of mapping. Mapping 'Sthe product of pace transmission which, together with the transmission of personel names aad skills fet the viet reeonsttion of oral lations ‘over time’ (Kichler 1993: 96). Paces and decrased people become nearly erchangeabl in this coneeptualisition, as they sve the same purpose of venting the present generation inthe history af ts neages. ‘What characterises all Suau lineage histories is that they are narratives of| ‘movement aross the lad (and sometimes the sa, a8 in Taujauna’shis- {oryh the names of lineages are themselves luce names, typically an eust ‘now addres for an apical anoesres, Lineages moved as «consequence of mariage, adopcon, exile. kidnapping, warfare. and in the twentieth entry, government intervention. The person identified as “Misiibi in “Tauyabune’saaraive was Me Vivian, a Resident Magistrate ofthe Austal= Jan administration inthe 19205, whois ereited with having relocated ene Tineages rom the hineriand othe coast in onerto ender them more oes le 10 government patrols. This policy probably sav the relocation of the ‘most people t any one time in Sua history, and gve rs othe emergence of villages which had not previously exited or had only existed a hamlets ‘ocupied by members of single ineage. Land disputes in soch vlogs a needless 10 say, endemic, But the government relocations of the early160_ Moles Demian twentieth century were duly incorporated ino the histories of the relocated Hneages «new kindof "road along which Kneages might travel” There can ten doubt tha the relocations exacerbated the already transient nate of Suau land claims ut they sig not generate i, Mobily as «component Fineage deniy is product ofthe combination of matriny und vocal 1s graned, unsurprising a distinctive moral value Stationary and mobile sates mark particular phases i the ves of Suny seople nd the motement of lineages may ultimately be ufected by one of these phases The claborton of mobility iSeology” oman individual eel may te soem as reflective of movement through and euiming of land by lineages ‘Three elements of varying strictness: mateiliny (non-negotiable. exogamy {often violated at clan lve but never at that of lineage}, and vilocalty {normative bu Rexibe. combine to produce highly mobile tinea popula- tins which nonetheless place a heavy emphasis om identieation wih specie laces. This nots patadaxial asi might seem, although it does necesi- Tate an ideological acknowledgement of principles of both rootedness and travel. These type, Austonesian conceens With origins and precedence {Fox and Sather 1996) are elaborited further at the level of birth order. Firstbom children (anda, leader’), whether mal or femal, are und Stood fo be the ‘bosses or steward of ther junior ablings (tama, F- Tower j requiring particular respect fom the junior siblings and thei spouses. “Married couples address each other by the names oftheir respective hamlets tor lneages unl te bir of their Best child, after which they practise tek onymy’ using the name ofthis child. Firstborn ehikren ae often aso the holders of lineage origin stoves. To the event ofthe death of a frstborn ing, authority transfers to the second-edest, and so on down the ‘ne’ of birth order. Sibling groups are ns metaphorically conceived ss taeling single- fe, which isthe preferred spatial arrangement for people joureying from lone place to another. Generations ure tso conceived in thi way, a woman high speak of her ancestors as the women bebind me" and er descendents tthe women infront of me ‘The special status of firstborn children is so condensed in the unique roationship they have with thir fathers, o whom they ar said to "belong" “This elationship contains as much potential forthe mobility of a lineage as oes virllocalit. for in both eases the land available for inheritance or use fruct i shifted from one location to another A firstborn’s“belonginencss ‘an, incertain cases be expressed asin option to inherit and fom the father's natilineage rather than the mother’s The option is not alm invoked, but remains as a latent relationship between a father and his isborn child. Te may be invoked ir festborn son has no sisters, if fstborn daughter prefers 10 stay on land belonging to er father’s Hneage rather than er mothers ofr other creumstantal and polities reasons. The defition of this type of inheritance isnot univers agreed upon, and frstborm-rule land elim may be overidden by someone claiming the sume land through 2 female ancestor. But in this rexpsct, firstborn child ean tely be sd fo lead’ is oF her siblings toa new home, should the option of inheritance fom the father's matiineage be exercised It also creates additional tensions ina system of land tenure which i already laden with contingencies: The ‘burden of fstborn children is o embody both principles of rootednes, in tat they are usually the holders of ieage origi Knowledge and authority ‘over the disposal oftheir and: sd mobility in that they may 2 may not ‘lately occupy and wock this Ind. In the care of«fietbor woman, the issue i compounded bythe fet that she may potently elim identinestion wih land belonging to her own Hneage. her fue’ Tineage, her husbands Tneage or any orl ofthese at diferent stages in he life! Frstbora ae par tseeloce the creators of new roads for thei Hineage to wavese, bat each liye a neage moves, a renegotiation of old and new celationships mus ake place ia order forthe land on which the lineage resides to belong to that lineage What kind of landowner? 1 refer to “belonging” rater than ‘ownership’ troughout this chapter for 2 reason. wish tomainain a distinction betweea the kind of relationship Sueu ‘peopl ve historically hed with end. an that implied by ownership, hat, {he fe simple xa Eghtyfve er cent of land in Papua New Guinea ill ‘eid under customary tenure, which includes al bot very small portions of the Suan Coast As the Australian administration leamed, and 35 ol palm nd timber companies may yet learn, Stata and tenures remarkably bard 0 pin down in such 2 way tht ‘landowning individuals, or corporate groups fasting aif they were individual, may be negotiated with. Or rather, ingi- ‘ius aiming tobe landowners may readily be found, butts guaranteed ‘that at Some pont in the uture their claim wl be contested, either by lineages chiming tobe the true owners of the land or by a member ofthat person's ‘own lineage claiming tobe the trae "boss ofthe and "Boris in fact the prefered glos offered by Englh-speaking Suau for their word manga, A Tomneape san elder member ofa lineage wo is ei- ‘ent on that lineage's and und, crucial, knows the neage history including the meuns by which they came ino sewardship ofthe land” A tanawage ‘eannot order the members of his or her ineage to dispose of resouree ina particular way. but ean only cajole and persuade, either by means of metings ‘ith individual lineage members or by mustring the entire lineage to confer together The status of a tanmaga i not even entirely secure If there are several senior members ofthe lineage who know the relevant history: some- {mes the tie shared peaceably between them, and sometimes itis aer- ‘moniousy contested, particularly ther arse disentin thelineage over how land is tobe ued, But whatever a lamonagais he or shes nota landowner the seas of & person with absolute and exclusive authority 10 dispose of4 pies of land or is resources und reap thelr benefits, This ethnographic fact, along with the combination of matriiny and virlocality described above makes fr dificult negotiations with companies desirous of making & ‘one-time deal with ‘mers’ of land who ure ating in &corporte capac. However many ‘ownes” may appear on the day of the contract signing, several dozen more are bouod to appear in the following months and years ‘ndignt tha they hav ot been consulted or compensated ‘Suau are themselves tying to come up with a solation (0 this problem. “That hey or ties thos who ve had ome education or other expos Euro-American property tegimes, regard tat problem was evident a rmectngUatended in December of 1999, in the village of Sago, Several ‘men in thet thirties or forte, al educated to some degre, were convening 2 series of mecings to deus the posibiity af forming a company called ‘Selena contraction of the names Duiduisa and Duiduileu, which Sua use to designate the estrn and western halves of the coast, respectively, Seeley would bea long comps. they sud. However, they didnot want to repeat the experiences of nearby villages which hid ha unfortunate dealings ‘sth Malaysian timber companies who pad below the market vale for logs, built shoddy roads that washed avay with the next rainy ae880n, and Heh behind seotchod grassland" So the meeting onpanisere were traveling up and down the coast to try to get landowner’ interested. Landowner” wat ‘an English word used erly throughowt the mesting: another was ‘la ‘When I pressed one ofthe organises to define what he meant by these erin, sald Tandowaer ws the oldest member of asian’ wich isin tur, he sid, ‘one Family ane wld" “There seemed to bein his account, some sippage betwoen the notions of landowner and tana. Taoeag can jst sensi be worsen omen, but there wer three women preset atthe meeting, ad oughly fry men. And ‘the eonvenors sometimes appeared to use the terms lndowne? ad fam wag asi they meant dierent things Clearly they do, Toma i & pro- fundly contingent ofc: on is eny ramawaa if one is sppropitly peed ator near the top ofthe bch order, has been taught where he land boundar- les are and the history of one's nage, and is demonstrably commited to living on the fad, Filly, cannot be emphasised enough that omg Jo not ow the lad So muchas they orchestrate suse. But “landowner caries the notion of iy of something that person is rater than something be lor she superntends for the ime beng. Lancownersip i a crstlistion, Freeze-ram, ofthe ephemeral nt of tamoee- sip "The convenors were ako converse inthe language of ‘the invidal’ versus “the community’, agsin employing the English words. Continuing with their nepative examples of logging villages where all Ue money west into ber and ater consumables, they sessed that they wanted a pocentage (of Saeieu's proceeds f0 go toward schools churches and aid posts with ‘the remainder going to the “landowner. One of the eonvenors sugested, “Land doos't come fom your ther she iit ake ewith her hands) 163 lmprobably, that those who witheld thei ‘communis’ percentage or ‘would purtcpute in the loging at all, coulda’ send their iden to the resuling schools It was clase Suu coereive consensut-bulling ether we alld tor nobody does it. Final}, they sues thei dsr to preempt the Tan iputes hut Would invarabiy are ase conssguence olan bringing in money. They exhorted their audios Io go home, hold mestings with their lant and try to come to un agreement (ma egy, “one mind) about the logging project so that discord wouldnt arse later. Tat they antieated Astor seomed both a reverberation of Balderson's wry remtk in his 1970 report, and an acknowledgment that decisions to dispose of and in particu lar ways would without fll ead co contestations of who could rhully ‘him tobe the “bos of the land and its resources Matriliny tested: a land dispute Rural lund disputes in Papua New Guinea are not handed by the leg sys tem, not een the village courts whose mandate mainenunceof ew and ‘order’ using combination of statutory and ‘custom" aw (Demian 2003) hey are inscad oversee by land mediators, knowledgsabe snd often eld- cal lea persons who are conversant with the history of the families eident fo he lund within chee jurisdiction and, perhape more importantly with the say that devolution of rights olan is handled by thei oun society They do not adjudicate but can only mediate between disputing putts. I dispute brought to them proves seo be intratable, they can recommend! that tbe taken to a distriet court. uct a solution is however. beyond the means of ‘most rural people and it has been my experince that Sut people teat are ‘zen osetlin the course of and mediation hearing. Sua land medions se almost festive occasions, months in the planning. accompanied by fest- fing and prayers. and hosed at no small expense. A single land mediation Isang may cover several disputes and continue for over twenty-four hours ‘without imercuption als forthe extusted anthropologist “The quotation inthe tte ofthis chaptercame froma mun present at and ‘mediation beating at Duhurmodawa mle in November of 1999. Thi man. 2 political activist." divided his ime betwoen the village and the provisiat "pital, Alota, My first encounter wich him in 1997 involved a mestng not tne the one jst described, in which he proposed downstream processing ‘operation though which people would beable to sell thei timber aleady Ss, o cotritors in Papiat New Guines, Tas strc by the fet that at his meting, he insisted on the presence of women and their consent to the proposed pans (which never came to Salon), although he explained to me ‘Mterwards that this was to ensure no witches would saboiage the business ut of jealousy. The remark he made two years ltr atte lend mediation was, howe, somewhat surprising tome, ashe had previously taken am idealistic “conducting basiness in accordance with radial values line, "Traion*apparently had is iso i, however, and uring the contusion ofthe 1353 medaton hearing he etlined, and Joes come from jour mothe, dhe cet me witb her hands God made tina day” The and mse Sor presiding canny an logue ol geneman ppered to gee with fim Gy espoaing tht ide, God had made the wold and ded tens enonptdiferest people But he then procrded to spend the next dlp mock abr had he previous one in ictring he youll pants fbbut thin and out of tinal nto “The mdnor had opened the powsecings wth speech emphasing “deelopment und the fare; ld belong he sid "0 our cre. i tev out He ave condensed istry ls, fom ibe tie before tothe Colo te when isons and goverment “gathered us topaher ftom every emer ofthe province He ook pan 10 acerca the tmbiy conta en erway the clo encounter ma te and situation ore completed than Hight otherwise be Ben. He ited the ws people fe some Ti nd hough icwel tlhe mingled papnens or exchange for ig an sl well Final be urged peop no tobe pets. bt to make et decisions ia way Shieh ould he nae of Buh the iter peopl who speak Glect mutual fatcligble with conta Sue and Tor wit he acted a tedator inthe ir pte ead in ma ting mong fori inca supp «i of hor in which te prandmber fom Maina fo imned tam fay Maaye tnd wet ove hh the At Mage there wae 9 mata a lapescale feast forthe exchange of weth ems through wich neg and ther nln members woul Buon hie fime snd donate ter economic cay" So the raninoter nen 1 berrelaons at Makiahina, who supplied a number pis or muta Butte peopl Mapiye weremoe betray hepsi ty ae the Mahimehina peo cee of land. BunuleePuoepne, and a stand of ‘go als Bin hiner op at Banal Pepa. His amy oer tush herein order to plat pars and cocoate hen Bina wa gromnad th econts mater eat to plant pln. Wen Gelso Mase In, eturned from wo at comer ol pls pantaton, he {0 beam toplat plat nase Panepane* na compsied about i whee upon Galubots nee chopped down some of Bint’ ipa and Gum ‘ed hishous. The actions othe ep wer deal wih nascar iloge court case ad Bia empha at he warn tying i epoca ‘ese battryingo esol te dope between Nise and Calo “Once Bina banished peaking hs ster poke upto cari tha beaut thir grandmother adhd no chide fer ow” Bina wa enti act '% tommaga, Aer some Sicson wth the land mentor oe the es ‘lavonaip teveen the grandmother and the pope a! Mapas, which ‘ccounted or her obligation to spply is forthe mast, Bnn sugested “tan deans come from your mothers it make wih hechands_ 165 tht the unreacted pigs wre timate the our fhe present dpe, beau ofthe substation of land as payment forthe pig He dened te boundries of the nd is neg ced a Bina Pann od ‘aerted that two of his Magaya uncles, that toy his father's batho ‘led the boundaries with him. See "The land mediator reminded Bin tat he could not lim lof Masaya, coy the block’ (a English term probuby introduce by eniy neste entry copra nd rubber planer) at BunallePunepae. ethcs mecioged {atone of Calubo'sobjection to Bina having planted olan tteeteeatee there wer graves inthe ‘lock’ belonging othe Mapa tenes Groves Ie fruting tees are pre-eminent indicia of long-starding lan sae stg prefable tobe buried on land belonging to ont sown incage Ths aed se ‘orchstised Bina forbs thoughiesnes in planting pls oer he res buts again that he had no power to gant ad eth ohn oto Gals, andthatthey bad toagree on asclement between hem. Sond lend ne ‘stg who had been sent up this point, encouraged the spun partes to zd that he dispute had gone an Tong enough, to pay toptben ake hands and thereby arrive atone mind together, Both mediator, nother word didn't seem to think there was an especialy complex probe te them, only ease of the non-secogiion of land him which should ae ‘course ofthe mediation become recognise. A tat pint Galubo!admitad {hat because his sister's son this ei secordng tomate kong) did "not have any land on which to plant opal he had cajled Galo ino siving him some but the land gies hin was part Bia lock at Bale Panepane Galoboi aid that he was ished ering, andimpi bag as ‘nephew fr talking im into course of ation tht he now rearted, ‘The frst land mediator then lectured both dipting partes something be i fequenly while presiding. He noted that Bis paternal untes hould have shown both Bina and Galubot tbe Boundariss ofthe land given to Bine's grandmother, because, he ai: “The people who came before us didnt know ifthe peopl to come ater thm would be few or many These dys education has made ws all ery ker Ifa mother gives bith to a baby boy we know bel many & ‘woman who is eent fom the fay. But i she gives birth toa gi, then we know tha she will Be the "boss of he land. We should ecogise ‘thal the hdr of ou sisters wll boas the land, Our om chien wl, notbos’ because they are of diferent kind. ‘Tie second mediator also ended with ctr, saying that ‘a woman's py ‘ment is land’. He didnot mean that lad is gen as ridewelth, whic ti ‘ot but rather tha marriage enals consideration of how future generations wil divide up land between them. He exhorted the young men present 10 ‘think carefully about how they would mary166 Mais Danian ‘At Gelemaluya the village he was rom) havea ft of sons-in, but ‘we cannot work thei land. The children wil look for land one da. IF Yyou gt married in your own village you must be of one mind und work Together propery. You should marey 2 Noman from your own place s0 that you'll el onto the ld. Bu if you mary someone from fa aay there writ be ay land for be. So remember hata Womans payment i land, Becuse bese equi land and education requires foresight, Conclusions “The harangues by te two mediators suggest why they thought this dispute, which should not have aren, did ue. Fest Both referred obliquely 10 8 problem felt by many contemporary Soa, namely, hat Ue Susu Coast as Experienced popuition explosion (te English phases reulrl wed) in the past thy Jers or 0. The ise in population and the ati concen tion of ilps eur the coat stemming rom Ausran government policies have combined to geerte something previously unknown in the Suau tater epetie: ere, Ths has not ye spl the end of matings as fas been demonstrated in other contexts, mutiny can espond to pressure fon reroures though the idea of uncestal interests inland which their des- ‘codants const as form of profi (Paanelo 1995). Some Suau lineages Fhe stared to addres the problem by reappropiting thee historia ei- tories in the biterlnd, but these are fequenty only aeesible by Toot, and soles desirable to younger people wo value oad and water connections to fl pln panttions, towns, and other villages More often, what happens Js that lineages active at adhe lnd-sharing agreements with each oe, or iempt to: make lind elms on increasingly ‘reatve’ grounds. The land rato" reproot to Bina fr tying to clam al of Magaya on the basis of ‘the payment ois grandmother an example ofthe ater strates although Bina didnot pursue it very aggressively {attended land dispute thee years eae in which paratral conn tion ws offered to weet fora and aim, but this connection was rejeced ‘outright by the land mediator. One of the victorious dspotans tld me ferwards withevident amazement at his opponeis audaci: "Those people trod to claim the land through thee fate But the ater is a completely dieent person. Like te exhortations ofthe mediator in the case of Bin fd Gulubo, who insted that “Our own children will not "boss" because thy are ofa dilleent kind this man was asserting that patrilateral lain ‘vere lpitinate on nothing les than taxonomie grounds, But the sxon0m. {he kindednes of persons, was primarily, and perhaps exclusively, relevant in the context of land culms 1 should clarify that | say this only beease Ihe never heard Suau person make taxonomic dstintions berveea people ‘bced on aeything other than the inheritance of lan; itis of couse possible that they do so on oer cceasons. But their unering tention to this pont “Land doen't come fom your matherahe sit make with her and 167 when discussing or conducting land dpe is noteworthy. Te ft con veyed isnot so much one of matriny separating people into eis and non heirs as one of land separating people into belonging ata non-belonging. 1 tm oot the rst oof such Formation; some tine ago de Copp (1985) propoved tit for “Are"Are in the Solomon Isc, people edit Feltions beeen ands asmuch as not more oth, land mediates lions between People. "Are’Are do not posit th relationship in the crude one-y fasion that Fave just done, but nae thatthe rajetoy of ‘owaership" beter nd tnd people sneverreducibioo “people own lan or"and owns people. Both fom ate sable at all ines: which one is aetve and which one Is sup. presol at any ven momeat is « mater of expedieny. And its not only in Melanesia that the contingeat nature of dilferentistion comes int ply: Sa (1982: 359) has documented in u West AMiun society the fet that debates ber the mutiineal inheritance default rie only upon the deaths af wealthy and influential personages. ‘uau people ean and do attempt to cai land through thei fathers There are as I mentioned x handful of permisibe ways 19 do #0, although all presume a mateiineal dfs to whi clans revert f none ofthe following Conditions obtain. Ifa coupe has only sons und ne daughters the hldren of the eldest son (tahun) can claim thet father's mother’ land ~ ba the son eannot esi it himsell. Alternatives 2 peesorssiduously making con- tributions o evens in the Father’ inca, such as rideelth und mortuary payments, would in so doing add (selaht) ple to the lind, and might proceed from dese to land eum. Finally. one can adopt a chil rom one's athe’ sister. The lineage sas of adopted children is elastic, but so the satus ofthe adopter in afew eases Sua draw many metaphoric connetion® betwen cidren und and and claiming w pent nteret in child maybe read a ltiming sm interest inthe land of that eh’ lineage. All ofthese strategies can, however, be overturned by w convincingly argued mtelineal claim. and some of them only stick’ fora generation of two before contol ‘over the land is wrested buck by members of the mateincage 1 which i ‘orginally belonged. Matriny i therefore not so much rule of inert’ 238 iC w constitutive configuration of persons. land. std identity which allows any one element to generate dstingons barween any ofthe oter to ‘ements “There is nother ctr to take into consideration, however. Land now has the capacity to generate money Land planted in oil palm, cocoa or coconuts ‘stain more oF less permanently out of hortvltural relation.” And cil, pal, curenty the most lucrative but uo the most ecoogiealy disruptive «ashcrop renders soil useless for any other purpose lng after the pls have Stopped preducing commercial viable frit. But ol palm is popular inthe ‘Buhata region, and the srall-scae plantations established by Buhutvappent {to hve generated deluge of land disputes Most people prec hat withthe sual pressure of popultion and cash cropping, the numberof disputes i160 Melass Denisa bound to estate This concern form hal ofthe cautions vee bythe land ‘diatorin the case deeibed above. The oter ta stems fom the increas Ing tendency of people to try t claim hind by mens oer than the mae lineal default, Bina didnot explisily do this, although he aimed, somewhat