Paul Wolffram
Biographic Data
| ID | 110192 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Wolffram |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Wolffram |
| SIGNATURE | WOLFFRAM P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Victoria University of Wellington |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2022-0794 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Performing Change
Sorcery accusation-related violence (SARV) remains a serious and expanding form of violence in Papua New Guinea. The issue is most acute in the Highlands, where accusations intersect with gender inequality, social precarity and shifting media environments. At the same time, smartphones and social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube have become increasingly significant in the circulation of violent imagery and accusatio…
Dreaming a Narrative and Conjuring an Image
This article explores long-term creative engagement, through filmmaking, with a community in Papua New Guinea. It examines the process and results of three feature film projects done in collaboration with Melanesian communities. The films discussed here have employed diverse methods to engage with people creatively. All three of these ethnographic films seek to privilege local epistemologies through their construction, narrative approaches and su…
Buai
Buai is a form of sorcery known throughout the New Guinea Island region of Papua New Guinea. This socially sanctioned form of magical practice is predominantly used for creative ends, particularly the conjuring of music and dance material. In many parts of New Ireland and among the Lak people of Southern New Ireland, Buai is relied upon to deliver new songs and dances for community celebrations and ritual performance. The practitioners of Buai, k…
Poems
Music in Pacific Island Cultures
Book Review| January 01 2013 Music in Pacific Island Cultures: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture Music in Pacific Island Cultures: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Brian Diettrich, Jane Freeman Moulin, and Michael Webb. 2011. New York: Oxford University Press. xxix, 195 pp., figures, illustrations, maps, transcriptions, photos, glossary, bibliography, references, resources, index. One compact disc. Paper, $29.95. Paul Wolffram Paul Wo…
Pakeha, Palagi, Whiteskin
This paper argues for conscious descriptions of the processes of socialisation that ethnographers undergo within their host communities. It also explores the roles of identity and self in the ethnographic process as applied to the other and to the researcher. As understandings are arrived at through a process of engagements and through relationships the key quantities in these exchanges deserve a closer consideration than they have traditionally …
There Once was an Island
Director: Briar March (2010) Duration: 80 mins, PAL DVD There Once was an Island is set on the remote island of Takū (Mortlock Islands). The film documents a community coming to terms with their ra
The Poet's Salary (Le Salaire du Poete)
"The Poet's Salary (Le Salaire du Poete)." The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 13(1), pp. 102–103
Melanesian Music; The Melanesian Interest Group of the American Anthropology Association
Melanesian Music Available at http://www.melanesianmusic.org The Melanesian Interest Group of the American Anthropology Association at Available at http://mignet.blogspot.com Melanesian Music (http
He's not a White Man, He's A Small Bird Like You and Me
In the Lak region of southern New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, music and dance performance is not a discreet element of society; it is in performances that communities show others who they are, what they consist of and how powerful they can be. It is also in a performance that "individuals" (in the Lak sense of the term) display their identity and reveal their spiritual capacity. In addition it is in performance that the visible reality of humans m…
Pakeha, Palagi, Whiteskin
This paper argues for conscious descriptions of the processes of socialisation that ethnographers undergo within their host communities. It also explores the roles of identity and self in the ethnographic process as applied to the other and to the researcher. As understandings are arrived at through a process of engagements and through relationships the key quantities in these exchanges deserve a closer consideration than they have traditionally …
He's not a White Man, He's A Small Bird Like You and Me
In the Lak region of southern New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, music and dance performance is not a discreet element of society; it is in performances that communities show others who they are, what they consist of and how powerful they can be. It is also in a performance that "individuals" (in the Lak sense of the term) display their identity and reveal their spiritual capacity. In addition it is in performance that the visible reality of humans m…
Dreaming a Narrative and Conjuring an Image
This article explores long-term creative engagement, through filmmaking, with a community in Papua New Guinea. It examines the process and results of three feature film projects done in collaboration with Melanesian communities. The films discussed here have employed diverse methods to engage with people creatively. All three of these ethnographic films seek to privilege local epistemologies through their construction, narrative approaches and su…
There Once was an Island
Director: Briar March (2010) Duration: 80 mins, PAL DVD There Once was an Island is set on the remote island of Takū (Mortlock Islands). The film documents a community coming to terms with their ra
He's not a White Man, He's A Small Bird Like You and Me
In the Lak region of southern New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, music and dance performance is not a discreet element of society; it is in performances that communities show others who they are, what they consist of and how powerful they can be. It is also in a performance that "individuals" (in the Lak sense of the term) display their identity and reveal their spiritual capacity. In addition it is in performance that the visible reality of humans m…
Melanesian Music; The Melanesian Interest Group of the American Anthropology Association
Melanesian Music Available at http://www.melanesianmusic.org The Melanesian Interest Group of the American Anthropology Association at Available at http://mignet.blogspot.com Melanesian Music (http
There Once was an Island
Director: Briar March (2010) Duration: 80 mins, PAL DVD There Once was an Island is set on the remote island of Takū (Mortlock Islands). The film documents a community coming to terms with their ra
The Poet's Salary (Le Salaire du Poete)
"The Poet's Salary (Le Salaire du Poete)." The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 13(1), pp. 102–103
Music in Pacific Island Cultures
Book Review| January 01 2013 Music in Pacific Island Cultures: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture Music in Pacific Island Cultures: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Brian Diettrich, Jane Freeman Moulin, and Michael Webb. 2011. New York: Oxford University Press. xxix, 195 pp., figures, illustrations, maps, transcriptions, photos, glossary, bibliography, references, resources, index. One compact disc. Paper, $29.95. Paul Wolffram Paul Wo…
Pakeha, Palagi, Whiteskin
This paper argues for conscious descriptions of the processes of socialisation that ethnographers undergo within their host communities. It also explores the roles of identity and self in the ethnographic process as applied to the other and to the researcher. As understandings are arrived at through a process of engagements and through relationships the key quantities in these exchanges deserve a closer consideration than they have traditionally …
Poems
Buai
Buai is a form of sorcery known throughout the New Guinea Island region of Papua New Guinea. This socially sanctioned form of magical practice is predominantly used for creative ends, particularly the conjuring of music and dance material. In many parts of New Ireland and among the Lak people of Southern New Ireland, Buai is relied upon to deliver new songs and dances for community celebrations and ritual performance. The practitioners of Buai, k…
Dreaming a Narrative and Conjuring an Image
This article explores long-term creative engagement, through filmmaking, with a community in Papua New Guinea. It examines the process and results of three feature film projects done in collaboration with Melanesian communities. The films discussed here have employed diverse methods to engage with people creatively. All three of these ethnographic films seek to privilege local epistemologies through their construction, narrative approaches and su…
Performing Change
Sorcery accusation-related violence (SARV) remains a serious and expanding form of violence in Papua New Guinea. The issue is most acute in the Highlands, where accusations intersect with gender inequality, social precarity and shifting media environments. At the same time, smartphones and social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, WhatsApp, and YouTube have become increasingly significant in the circulation of violent imagery and accusatio…
Art (6 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · History (4 works) · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs (4 works) · Visual arts (4 works) · Gender Studies (3 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (2 works) · Art history (2 works)