Project members

Current research project:

Place and Identity on the North Coast of Papua New Guinea

My project is aimed at exploring people's relation to place on the coast southeast of Lae in the Huon Gulf of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Several Austronesian languages are spoken in this area, representing different, relatively recent, waves of migration into the area. The project shall focus on how senses of belonging are associated with specific places, languages and social groupings, and how these are made manifest in social encounters and in the ways people speak about their histories and origins. The traditional trade network along the coast will be an important focus in this regard.

A secondary aim of this project is of a comparative nature. I have previously conducted long-term anthropological fieldworks on Wogeo (Vokeo) Island in East Sepik Province and written a Cand. Polit. thesis (1996) and a doctoral dissertation (2003) about, among other topics, place and belonging in Wogeo. The differences between Wogeo as a relatively homogenous island society and the multi-lingual Huon Gulf with its various migration histories open up for interesting comparisons concerning place and belonging. I have also, in cooperation with linguist Mats Exter, initiated the work of documenting the Wogeo language and have collected a number of myths and histories from the island. Comparisons of histories of origin and movement in Wogeo and the Huon Gulf will shed light over the various ways people organise and give meaning to their socio-geographical worlds, but may also prove to elicit edifying similarities.

Approximately six months of fieldwork will be conducted during 2005, primarily in the Numbami speaking village of Siboma. The Numbami language is only spoken by the people of Siboma and multi-lingualism is common in the village. In addition, Numbami represents the first migration of Austronesian-speakers into the area and is, thus, a particularly interesting site for this project. I also plan to travel along the coast between Lae and Siboma and collect histories of origin, movement and place from several of the villages along the coast.

Recent publications:
2004: "Adoption and belonging in Wogeo, Papua New Guinea" in F. Bowie (ed.) Cross-Cultural Approaches to Adoption. Oxford: Routledge.
2003: Wogeo Landscapes: Place, Movement and the Politics of Belonging. Dr. Polit. dissertation. Oslo: Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo.
2003: "Landscapes of Sociality: Paths, Places and Belonging in Wogeo, Papua New Guinea" in I. Hoëm and S. Roalkvam (eds.) Oceanic Socialities and Cultural Forms: Ethnographies of Experience. Oxford: Berghahn.

See also:
http://www.sai.uio.no/forskning/presentasjon/competence/anderson.html

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