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talks:staying:start [2021/02/10 21:03] – [Staying in contact: Colonial encounter as constitutive fiction] 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.
  
-{{ :talks:staying:media:schram-staying-11feb21.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 Please do not quote or cite without permission of the author.+{{ :talks:staying:media:schram_staying_28oct21_draft.pdf |Paper}} and slides for a presentation in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.  Available at http://anthro.rschram.org/talks/staying. 
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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 =====
  
-{{:talks:staying:media:wemaru.png| }}+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.
  
-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). +  * By truck (“Returning Polls” 2002) 
-===== The symbolism of voting from home in PNG =====+  * By boat (Kenneth 2007b) 
 +  * By helicopter (Palme 1997; Rheeney 2007; Thomas 2002) 
 +  * On foot (Kenneth 2002, 2007a; Wemuru 2017b)
  
-{{:talks:staying:media:mitieng.png| }}+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).
  
-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). 
 ===== Ethnographic citizenship ===== ===== Ethnographic citizenship =====
  
   * 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|PDF copy.]])+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.
  
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 +-----
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 +<WRAP similar box>~~SIMILAR~~</WRAP>
  
  
talks/staying/start.1613019784.txt.gz · Last modified: 2021/02/10 21:03 by Ryan Schram (admin)