Ancestral Lines

Introduction to Papua New Guinea (PNG)Fieldwork

Modes of ProductionKinship

Reciprocity, Gift Exchange, and MarketsGlobalization

Rainforests: Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia• Tremendous biological diversity in terms of animal,

insect, and plant species• Under threat from logging, mining, ranching, and

increased population pressures• Erosion and poor soil once trees are cut

(Haiti/Cuba/Puerto Rico after sugar cultivation in 17th and 18th centuries)

• Why should we care about rainforests? Carbon sinks: absorbs CO2 and thus mitigates the harmful effects of carbon production: global warming and climate change

PNG as a Culturally Diverse Nation: “For Each Village, a Different Culture” (popular saying)

• Population: 6 million people (about the population of greater Philadelphia metropolitan area)

• Area: slightly larger than California (55th largest country in the world)

• 700 distinct languages; most languages have less than 1,000 speakers.

• Due in part to a mountainous terrain; also endemic warfare in the past (footnote 7, p. 36).

• Most people are multilingual, including in Tok Pisin, a creole language that is the lingua franca.

John Barker’s Ethnographic Fieldwork

Pros Cons