Your OwnBuaiYou Must Buy: The Ideology of Possessive Individualism in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Possessive individualism is asserted by an emerging indigenous elite among the Tolai of Papua New Guinea as a means of differentiating themselves from grassroots villagers. The grassroots are accused of a dependency culture and not taking responsibility for ownership of their own persons. The grassroots accuse the elite of ignoring their customary obligations to their kin. Central to this moral contest is a dispute over the meaning of ‘kastom’ (custom). For the grassroots it tends to embody an ethic of reciprocal interdependence that covers all areas of social life. The elite increasingly try to limit it to certain areas of ritual performance in which their ties to kin are publicly acknowledged, but to deny that it has relevance to their lives in town or in the running of their businesses. Hence, the attempt to limit the social scope of kastom becomes simultaneously an attempt to assert a ‘possessive individual’ view of themselves as persons who are the owners of their own capacities in contexts such as business.

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