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talks:staying:start [2021/02/07 23:20] – [Secret and public, sacred and secular] Ryan Schram (admin)talks:staying:start [2021/10/28 00:05] (current) – Ryan Schram (admin)
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 Ryan Schram   Ryan Schram  
 University of Sydney   University of Sydney  
-February 8, 2021  +February 11, 2021  
  
  
 **Abstract**: Maclean (1998) has argued that the tenuously shared sovereignty of local communities and the national state in Papua New Guinea owes to the simultaneously systematic yet shoestring colonial governance of the country, and particularly the method of government by patrol that was established after the second World War. For Maclean, the closure of the frontier was never more than "barbed connections to a surface" (86) In this paper, I argue that the contact between patrol officer and community, and the risks to the identities that it entails for both parties, is not only the conditions for political participation in colonial PNG but the constitutive fiction of the postcolonial PNG state. As citizens, people of PNG are required to encounter each other as others, and to be ethnographers of each other and themselves. **Abstract**: Maclean (1998) has argued that the tenuously shared sovereignty of local communities and the national state in Papua New Guinea owes to the simultaneously systematic yet shoestring colonial governance of the country, and particularly the method of government by patrol that was established after the second World War. For Maclean, the closure of the frontier was never more than "barbed connections to a surface" (86) In this paper, I argue that the contact between patrol officer and community, and the risks to the identities that it entails for both parties, is not only the conditions for political participation in colonial PNG but the constitutive fiction of the postcolonial PNG state. As citizens, people of PNG are required to encounter each other as others, and to be ethnographers of each other and themselves.
  
-Slides for a presentation in *Strange intimacies: A Festschrift conference in honor of Neil Maclean* at the University of Sydney, February 19, 2021. Please do not quote or cite without permission of the author.+{{ :talks:staying:media:schram_staying_28oct21_draft.pdf |Paper}} and slides for a presentation in *[[https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/festschrift-for-neil-maclean-tickets-131986809099|Strange intimacies: A Festschrift conference in honor of Neil Maclean]]* at the University of Sydney, February 19, 2021. Please do not quote or cite without permission of the author. 
 + 
 +Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/talks/staying. 
  
  
 ===== Initiation into nation ===== ===== Initiation into nation =====
  
-During the independence referendum held in Bougainville in 2019, men undergoing a secret initiation were invited to vote at a special all-male polling place to preserve the secrecy of the //upe// they wear during initiation. +During the independence referendum held in Bougainville in 2019, men undergoing a secret initiation were invited to vote at a special all-male polling place to preserve the sanctity of the //upe// they wear continuously during initiation.
- +
  
-{{:talks:staying:media:upe-entrance.jpg| Figure 1: A line of men wearing //upe// hats enter the all-male polling place established by the Bougainville Referendum Commission for the 2019 independence referendum at Kunua on November 29, 2019 (“Upes Come Out to Cast Their Vote” 2019).}}+{{:talks:staying:media:upe-entrance.jpg| }}
  
 +Figure 1: A line of men wearing //upe// hats enter the all-male polling place established by the Bougainville Referendum Commission for the 2019 independence referendum at Kunua on November 29, 2019 (“Upes Come Out to Cast Their Vote” 2019).
 ===== Upes go in to vote in order to come out to vote ===== ===== Upes go in to vote in order to come out to vote =====
  
 The //upe//-wearing initiates interrupted their period of seclusion, but they voted at a polling place within an enclosure of its own, thus maintaining their seclusion. The //upe//-wearing initiates interrupted their period of seclusion, but they voted at a polling place within an enclosure of its own, thus maintaining their seclusion.
  
-{{:talks:staying:media:upe-vote.jpg| Figure 2: A man wearing an //upe// casts a ballot in the 2019 Bougainville independence referendum at the all-male polling place at Kunua on November 29, 2019 (“Upes Come Out to Cast Their Vote” 2019).}}+{{:talks:staying:media:upe-vote.jpg|}}
  
 +Figure 2: A man wearing an //upe// casts a ballot in the 2019 Bougainville independence referendum at the all-male polling place at Kunua on November 29, 2019 (“Upes Come Out to Cast Their Vote” 2019).
 ===== Secret and public, sacred and secular ===== ===== Secret and public, sacred and secular =====
  
-The all-male polling place for //upe// was photographed by a Bougainville Referendum Commission press officer, who distributed the photos of the men wearing //upe// to the national and international press.+The all-male polling place for //upe// was photographed by a Bougainville Referendum Commission press officer, who distributed the photos of the men wearing //upe// to national and international media.
  
 The //upe// hat, of course, is already a well-known, highly visible symbol of Bougainville. It appears on the flag of Bougainville, for instance. The //upe// hat, of course, is already a well-known, highly visible symbol of Bougainville. It appears on the flag of Bougainville, for instance.
  
-{{:talks:staying:media:bville-flag.jpg| Figure 3: The flag of Bougainville (“Bougainville Flag, Emblem and Anthem (Protection) Act 2018” 2018, sched. 1)}}+{{:talks:staying:media:bville-flag.jpg|}}
  
 +Figure 3: The flag of Bougainville (“Bougainville Flag, Emblem and Anthem (Protection) Act 2018” 2018, sched. 1)
 ===== Does PNG have two publics? ===== ===== Does PNG have two publics? =====
  
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   * Yet if the rituals of US citizenship are a “simultaneous affirmation of the absence of history and the presence of the past” (Norton 1993, 15), then the rituals of PNG citizenship dehistoricize the kiap while representing his alters as empirical presences of an imaginary precolonial past.   * Yet if the rituals of US citizenship are a “simultaneous affirmation of the absence of history and the presence of the past” (Norton 1993, 15), then the rituals of PNG citizenship dehistoricize the kiap while representing his alters as empirical presences of an imaginary precolonial past.
     * People in the US imagine that they sign constitutions; people in PNG imagine they write an ethnography of themselves.     * People in the US imagine that they sign constitutions; people in PNG imagine they write an ethnography of themselves.
 +
  
 ===== When the polls come to you ===== ===== When the polls come to you =====
  
-{{media/wemaru.png| Figure 4: A photograph and caption by Sylvester Wemaru on the front page of the July 6, 2017 edition of the Papua New Guinea //National// newspaper (Wemaru 2017b).}}+During the two-week polling period of general elections in PNG, it is common for newspaper reporters and photographers to document the transportation of ballots to all parts of the country, by any means necessary.
  
-===== The symbolism of voting from home in PNG =====+  * By truck (“Returning Polls” 2002) 
 +  * By boat (Kenneth 2007b) 
 +  * By helicopter (Palme 1997; Rheeney 2007; Thomas 2002) 
 +  * On foot (Kenneth 2002, 2007a; Wemuru 2017b)
  
-{{media/mitieng.png| Figure 5: A second picture by Sylvester Wemaru and its caption as it appeared in the July 6, 2017 edition of the Papua New Guinea //National// newspaper (Wemaru 2017a).}}+In the 2017 election, a reporter also captured poll workers taking a ballot from a village to the home of a single voter who was unable to walk to the polling place (Wemuru 2017a).
  
 ===== Ethnographic citizenship ===== ===== Ethnographic citizenship =====
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   * One has a rights as a citizen only if one helps to produce ethnographic knowledge of oneself for others.   * One has a rights as a citizen only if one helps to produce ethnographic knowledge of oneself for others.
  
 +===== References =====
  
 +//Bougainville Flag, Emblem and Anthem (Protection) Act 2018//. 2018. https://www.abg.gov.pg/uploads/acts/18-03_Bougainville_Flag,_Emblem_and_Anthem_(Protection)_Act_2018.pdf.
  
-## References 
  
-“Bougainville Flag, Emblem and Anthem (Protection) Act 2018.” 2018. Autonomous Region of Bougainville. https://www.abg.gov.pg/uploads/acts/18-03_Bougainville_Flag,_Emblem_and_Anthem_(Protection)_Act_2018.pdf+Ekeh, Peter P. 1975. “Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement.” //Comparative Studies in Society and History// 17 (1): 91–112. https://www.jstor.org/stable/178372.
  
  
-Ekeh, Peter P. 1975. “Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement.” //Comparative Studies in Society and History// 17 (1): 91–112.+Honig, Bonnie. 1996. “Difference, Dilemmas, and the Politics of Home.” In //Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political//, edited by Seyla Benhabib, 257–77. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
  
  
-Honig, Bonnie. 1996. “Difference, Dilemmas, and the Politics of Home.” In //Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political//, edited by Seyla Benhabib, 257–77. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.+Kenneth, Gorethy. 2002. “Foot Power.” //The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier//, June, 1. 
 + 
 + 
 +———. 2007a. “No Aircraft, No Problem - We’ll Carry Them.” //The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier//, July, 1. 
 + 
 + 
 +———. 2007b. “Catching up with News in the Bush!” //The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier//, July, 3.
  
  
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-“Upes Come Out to Cast Their Vote.” 2019. //Bougainville Referendum Commission//.+Palme, Robert. 1997. “Like Gold...” //The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier//, June, 1.
  
  
-Wemaru, Sylvester. 2017a. “This May Be My Last Vote.” //The Papua New Guinea National//, July, 4.+“Returning Polls.” 2002. //The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier//, June, 6. 
 + 
 + 
 +Rheeney, Alex. 2007. “Aussie Copter Pilots Get on-the-Spot Clearance.” //The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier//, July, 1. 
 + 
 + 
 +Thomas, Theo. 2002. “All Aboard...” //The Papua New Guinea Post-Courier//, June, 2. 
 + 
 + 
 +“Upes Come Out to Cast Their Vote. Bougainville Referendum Commission.” 2019. November 29, 2019. http://bougainville-referendum.org/upes-come-out-to-cast-their-vote/. 
 + 
 + 
 +Wemuru, Sylvester. 2017a. “This May Be My Last Vote.” //The Papua New Guinea National//, July, 4.
  
  
 ———. 2017b. “Tough Going.” //The Papua New Guinea National//, July, 1. ———. 2017b. “Tough Going.” //The Papua New Guinea National//, July, 1.
  
 +
 +
 +
 +-----
 +
 +<WRAP similar box>~~SIMILAR~~</WRAP>
  
  
talks/staying/start.1612768808.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021/02/07 23:20 by Ryan Schram (admin)