Claiming Culture

New Definitions and Ownership of Cultural Practices in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea

Bibliographic Data

ID2174544
AuthorsDalsgaard (0000-0003-3712-6988, corresponding author), Steffen Dalsgaard
Year2009
Volume10
Issue1
Pages20-32
Publication date2009-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanberra Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0314-9099 • E-ISSN: 1740-9314
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14442210802706889
OpenAlexW2059199128
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited21

In the past in Manus Province, Papua New Guinea, specialised practices, such as the construction of canoes or traditional slit-drums (garamuts), were the property of patrilineal descent groups. Today, processes of objectification of traditions have generated new cultural identifications and redefined the ways skills are perceived as resources and can be claimed as property. The present article traces contemporary developments of notions of tradition and culture in Manus and discusses these in the light of empirical material obtained in connection with the preparations for an ethnographic exhibition on Manus. The argument is that cultural practices classified as kastam are part of local interpretations of cultural differences in ways that seem contingent with precolonial ‘cultural totemism’ but, as knowledge, cultural practices can also be transacted

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis) · Art · Cultural artifact · Cultural heritage · Cultural property · Epistemology · Ethnography · Ethnology · Exhibition · Manus · New guinea · Objectification · Property (philosophy) · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies · Philosophy

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