This book studies the Hahalis Welfare Society, a Bougainville movement which worked for many years to maintain and reform traditional practices and to retain a degree of autonomy in a world of rapid political change and economic dependency. The first extended ethnography of Buka published in nearly sixty years, this book will be of particular interest to Melanesian specialists.
Max Rimoldi Senior Lecturer in Anthropology,University of Auckland and Eleanor Rimoldi, Anthropologist, Researcher and Writer
Contents: Introduction - Social Movements - The Political Focus of Communities of Production - Baton for Baton: Retribution and New Stances - Power and the Person: The Negotiation of Nitsunono - Custom and Law: A Quick Blow - Coming Outside and Politics Within - Judgement for Judgement: Baru Bibliography