Changing Pacific Masculinities: The ‘Problem’ of Men

John P. Taylor                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

125-135

This introduction places the papers of this Special Issue within the context of a brief overview of previous literature on the subject of masculinities in the Pacific, and especially of Melanesia. The particular focus on Melanesia is discussed in terms of the colloquia from which the papers originated and is also linked to a discussion of the regionalism of applied social science in Australia. In acknowledging the current link between academic research into gender and the aid and development industries, this introduction critically discusses how understandings of Pacific men and masculinities have presented a ‘problem’ to both of these areas. Indeed, while assessing particular instances in the changing situation of Pacific men’s lives, the papers in this Issue also provide a timely critique of the shared dilemmas of anthropology and development within the region.

Neoliberalism, Mobility and Cook Islands Men in Transit

Kalissa Alexeyeff                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

136-149

From the 1990s, neoliberalism has been vigorously promoted by aid agencies operating in the Cook Islands. The solution to the country’s economic problems has been sought in the privatisation of government assets and services and the development of free-market principles. Social Impact Assessment reports of these reforms have included information on their effect on women and children under the heading of ‘gender’; men, however, are notably absent as a category of analysis. Building on recent work about men, masculinities and development, this paper begins to address this imbalance by examining how Cook Islands men have been effected by, and how they react to, neoliberalism in a series of gender specific ways. In particular, it explores the relationship between masculinity, class, status, and migration.

Mobility, Violence and the Gendering of HIV in Papua New Guinea

Katherine Lepani                                                                                         

150-164

The links between gender, sexuality, and violence hold serious implications for HIV transmission and its social and economic effects. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), enduring and pervasive patterns of male sexual behaviour involving coercion, violence, and gang rape are highly conducive to the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and have a critical bearing on women’s sexual autonomy and health. The realities of violence are intensified by the widespread view that women are responsible for the spread of the virus. This paper engages the theme of mobility to consider the fluid and dynamic character of gender relations and sexuality in contemporary PNG, and to gain perspective on constructions of modern masculinity and the discursive representations of gender violence in the context of the escalating HIV epidemic.

The Social Life of Rights: ‘Gender Antagonism”, Modernity and Raet in Vanuatu 

John P. Taylor                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

165-178

In the northern Vanuatu town of Luganville a small group of men have responded to social and legal changes engendered by women’s rights activists by forming a male support group called ‘Violence Against Men’. Members of this ‘backlash’ movement argue that the insidious promotion of Western-style ‘women’s rights’ is leading to discrimination against men in divorce proceedings, child custody battles, and in domestic violence and rape cases. They directly oppose recent and ongoing legal changes aimed at protecting women from domestic violence, such as Domestic Violence Protection Court Orders, and the repeatedly tabled (but long-delayed) ‘Family Protection Bill’. Such interventions, they argue, undermine Vanuatu’s ‘natural’ kastom and Christian patriarchal gender order and, in doing so, pose a serious threat to the socio-economic productivity of the nation-state. For other men, however, rather than opposing women’s rights activism, such challenges have raised questions about how men might successfully negotiate their identities in ways that are sensitive to contemporary issues of gender equality without undermining existing paradigms. Thus, this paper addresses the value accorded to universalism and relativism in gender activism in Vanuatu, and especially in terms of the linked discourses of kastom, church and modernity. It therefore explores gender relations in terms of the contemporary entanglement of indigenous and exogenous epistemologies, and in doing so argues that the contextual analysis of ‘rights’ should consider the specific historical, political and socio-cultural circumstances in which they are put to use.

Police and Thieves, Gunmen and Drunks: Problems with Men and Problems with Society in Papua New Guinea

Martha Macintyre                                                                                   

179-193

The image of the ‘man with a gun’ is pervasive in Papua New Guinea and connotes not only the state’s capacity to use force, but that of men to resist and subvert state control. At the same time, the association of beer and marijuana with both modernity and violent masculine behaviours provides the context, the justification and the forms of homosocial activities involving violence. In this paper, I explore the ambiguities surrounding guns as instruments of state force and as symbols of masculine autonomy in so-called ‘weak states’ by examining some stories about the ways that guns are acquired for illegal activities. In particular, I shall discuss the ways that guns and beer are instruments of violence and potency for police, tribal warriors and criminals as well as some of the means whereby men gain access to new forms of power. Drawing on ethnographic research with young men in New Ireland Province, the paper will deal specifically with the ways that adolescent boys construe ‘modern masculinity’.

Men of Kastom and the Customs of Men: Status, Legitimacy and Persistent Values in Lihir,Papua New Guinea

Nicholas A. Bainton                                                                             

194-212

The changing nature of Lihirian masculinity in the context of large-scale resource development is characterised by ingenuity, disjuncture and struggles for legitimacy. In this paper, I consider the various ways Lihirian masculinity is challenged and shaped by exogenous influences, how Lihirians appropriate particular aspects of modernity for their own purposes, and the ways in which certain Lihirian men have attempted to redefine masculine ideals according to neoliberal democratic values in their quest to modernise Lihir. This paper draws on fieldwork conducted in the Lihir Islands between 2003 and 2007.

Sung Adornment: Changing Masculinities at Lake Kopiago, Papua New Guinea

Nicole Haley                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

213-229

In the space of 50 years, ideals of masculinity in the western end of the Southern Highlands have been radically transformed. Gone, for instance, is the bachelor cult where young boys were grown into men. Drawing upon ethnographic research undertaken over the past decade, in the Lake Kopiago sub-district in the far north-western corner of Southern Highlands Province, this paper seeks to document these changing masculinities and explore their portrayal by juxtaposing ‘traditional’ and contemporary growth enhancing spells and courting songs—particularly those composed and sung by men. In doing so, this paper also seeks to explore how guns, marijuana, discos and pornographic movies have come to figure centrally in contemporary notions of masculinity. It will also document how the proliferation of marijuana and small arms has transformed young men with otherwise very little standing in the community into self-promoted leaders who have taken it upon themselves to publicly police the sexuality of women in increasingly violent ways.

Obituaries

Alfred W. McCoy                                                                                                                                  

Lester Richard Hiatt

Francesca Merlan                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

233-236

Book Review Essay
Listening to the Voice in South Indian Classical Music

Ian Bedford
Review essay of Amanda J. Weidman. Singing the Classical: Voicing the Modern: The Postcolonial Politics of Voice in South India       

237-244    

Book Reviews

Theresa Jill Buckland. Dancing from Past to Present: Nation, Culture, Identities [Rosita Henry]          

245-246

Sarah Franklin. Dolly Mixtures: The Remaking of Genealogy [Marilyn Strathern]                                               

247

Sawa Kurotani. Home Away From Home: Corporate Wives in the United Sates. [Rumi Sakamoto]              

248