Involution, Entropy, or Innovation? Cultural Economics on Bougainville
Eleanor Rimoldi, Massey University
This paper will explore the politics of value in relation to Bougainville’s struggle to protect a unique culture. Bougainville has a history of social movements that have taken a pragmatic approach in dealing with political and economic change from a position of cultural and material strength that depended to a large extent on the ability to survive as a remote, self-contained island society. As Bougainville moves towards the status of an independent state, political demands and social expectations will seriously challenge the cultural economy of Bougainville based on matriliny, land and negotiated alliances between traditional leaders. Bougainville has experienced extreme oscillations between isolation and interference in the last thirty years. The cultural response to such destabilizing conditions can take various forms – the acceleration of cultural complexity, or turning inward towards a closed system, or invention of new social forms. What is valued, and what is of value on Bougainville will influence its future direction. The irony is that recognition as ‘autonomous’, or as an ‘independent’ state, entangles Bougainville in an international web of legal, political, and economic requirements on which it will be judged, and if found wanting, will be considered a ‘failed state’ or ‘rogue entity’.
