Creative Land Place and Procreation on the Rai Coast of Papua Ne Guinea [Paperback]

What is creative in kinship? How are people connected to places? James Leach answers these questions through formulating creativity as an integral part of kinship on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. The book contains a new critique of the genealogical model of kinship, suggesting that this model prevents us from grasping the way generative relations, including those to land and place, constitute persons on the Rai Coast. Analytic attention is focused upon the life cycle, marriage, exchange and artistic production as the activities in which substantial connection is generated. The argument, made in relation to detailed ethnography, yields a fresh perspective on the connections people trace to each other.

List of Maps, Figures, Tables, and Photographs
Notes on the Text
Preface
Acknowledgements

Introduction:The Rai Coast

Chapter 1. Process and Kinship

• Kinship, Process, and Creativity
• Cognation and Flexibility
• An Alternative to the Genealogical Model
• The Palem

Chapter 2. Residence History and Palem

• Hamlets Past and Present
• Hamlets as Social Groups
• The Labours of Lawrence Complexity

Chapter 3. Marrying Sisters

• Defining Relationships
• Myths and Explanations

Chapter 4. Gardens, Land, and Growth

• Origin Points
• Gendered Productivity: The Tambaran Households and Gardens
• Gardening, not Production
• Gardens, Land, and Substance
• Male Continuity, Female Movement

Chapter 5. Birth, Emergence, and Exchange

• The Transactions Between Affinal Kin Focused on Children
• Mothers Brothers in the Anthropological Literature