[Anthropgrad] Friday Seminars (7 March 2008)

[Sin Wen Lau]

Anthropology Student Seminar Series, Semester 1, 2008
Milgate Room, AD Hope
7 March 2008, 3 pm

Institutionalising the lapan – changes and continuities in political leadership in Manus province, Papua New Guinea by Steffan Dalsgaard

Lapan is the pan-Manusian term for a ‘traditional’ leader. In the past, these men were heads of high-ranking patrilineal descent groups and often held their position by referring to genealogy, efficacy in war or exchange, as well as exclusive knowledge and ownership of material or intellectual resources.

Although the lapan in this way embodies characteristics associated with different types of leaders found in the Pacific region (chief, big men, great men), today the traditional leadership is often translated into English as ‘chief’, and in recent years a couple of villages have started to refer to their congregation of leaders of descent groups of the village as a ‘Council of Chiefs’, which has been endorsed by the Manus Provincial Government.

By tracing the conceptual history of the notion of the lapan, this presentation will analyse how the role and functions of the institutions of village leadership in Manus has changed within the framework of the modern state.

-- 
==================================================================
Lau Sin Wen
Department of Anthropology
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT0200
Australia

Telephone : +61-2-6125-3271
Fax	 : +61-2-6125-4896
Email	 : sinwen.lau at anu.edu.au
Website	 : http://rspas.anu.edu.au/anthropology
==================================================================