kompensesen

[BURTON John]

No observation of how early it was first used, but it has clearly been
entrenched for some time. Colin Filer was recently remarking, in another
context about precedents for cash compensation payments, about the war
damage compensation that villagers who had suffered losses to livestock,
houses etc were able to claim from the Australian Administration after WWII.

So the obvious answer for us is to make a note when looking at 1946-49
patrol reports to see if there are any clues in them. There may be accounts
of information talks given by kiaps, or instructions to give them by their
superiors. 'Kompensesen' must have been used.

John Burton

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Scaglion [mailto:scaglion+ at pitt.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, 23 October 2001 1:23 AM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: kompensesen
> 
> 
> 
> As a legal anthropologist, I was interested to note recently 
> the absence of 
> "kompensesen" (or however it might be spelled) in Mihalic's 
> dictionary. He 
> does list "bekim" as a translation for "to compensate," but 
> that, to me, is 
> something different. I certainly heard the word kompensesen 
> used in the 
> early 70s, in both the Sepik and the Highlands, to refer to customary 
> compensation payments. Anyone have any observations on how 
> early (and where 
> and how) this term was used?
> 
> Thanks, Rick
>