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The Wola people of the Highlands of Give and Take Papua New Guinea place unusual emphasis on the sovereignty of the individual. Their society places few constraints on its members; they have no government, no Exchange in Wola Society authoritative leaders, no formal judicial system. If to paraphrase Rousseau, man is born free but is everywhere in chains, Wola man is very lightly shackled. Order in Wola Society is based on the exchange of wealth, the effect of an elaborate exchange system that allows the handing round of wealth—pearl shells, pigs and other, minor items. Exchange among the Wola is an important social principle. It requires co-operation and constrains the fractious individual to maintain an ordered society. This book presents a vigorous, new analysis of a Highlands people that is a substantial contribution both to the ethno­ graphy of the New Guinea Highlands and to anthropological theory. Paul Sillitoe The Wola people of the Highlands of Give and Take Papua New Guinea place unusual emphasis on the sovereignty of the individual. Their society places few constraints on its members; they have no government, no Exchange in Wola Society authoritative leaders, no formal judicial system. If to paraphrase Rousseau, man is born free but is everywhere in chains, Wola man is very lightly shackled. Order in Wola Society is based on the exchange of wealth, the effect of an elaborate exchange system that allows the handing round of wealth—pearl shells, pigs and other, minor items. Exchange among the Wola is an important social principle. It requires co-operation and constrains the fractious individual to maintain an ordered society. This book presents a vigorous, new analysis of a Highlands people that is a substantial contribution both to the ethno­ graphy of the New Guinea Highlands and to anthropological theory. Paul Sillitoe Dr Paul Sillitoe has conducted research at both the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of Cambridge. He has spent over two years living, with his wife, in the remote Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea collecting the ethno­ graphic material recorded in this book. During this time he has learnt the Wola language and come to know these people well by sharing in their life. Jacket design by Kirsty Morrison Printed in Australia at Griffin Press Limited This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991. This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press. This project aims to make past scholarly works published by The Australian National University available to a global audience under its open-access policy. Give and Take Give and Take Exchange in Wola Society Paul Sillitoe Australian National University Press, Canberra, Australia, and London, England 1979 First published in Australia 1979 Printed in Australia for the Australian National University Press, Canberra by Griffin Press Limited, Netley, South Australia. © Paul Sillitoe 1979 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Sillitoe, Paul. Give and take. Index. Bibliography. ISBN 0 7081 1805 4. 1. Wola (New Guinea people)—Social life and customs. I. Title. 301.29'95’5 Library of Congress No. 78-54414 Southeast Asia: Angus & Robertson (S.E.Asia) Pty Ltd, Singapore Japan: United Publishers Services Ltd, Tokyo For my mother and father 14. a man travelling into a far country, . called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 15. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey. 16. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them five other talents. 17. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. 18. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. 19. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 20. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. 21. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. 22. He also that had received two talents came . 24. Then he which had received the one talent came and said . 25. And 1 was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth . 26. His lord answered and said unto him. Thou wicked and slothful servant . 27. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the ex­ changers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. Matthew XXV: 14-27 All contacts among men rest on the scheme of giving and receiving the equivalence. Georg Simmel in The Sociology of Georg Simmel (1908: 387) the gift or other service is given as to a friend, although the giver expects to receive an equivalent or greater return. Aristotle The Nicomachean Ethics Preface The exchange of such objects of wealth as pigs and pearl shells is very important for the Wola. It is a major interest in their lives and they respect highly those who excel at it. This study sets out to explain why this is so. Its argument rests on the premise that exchange plays a fundamental part in maintaining order in this otherwise too flimsily structured society, and at the risk of reducing a complex and subtly organised society to an over-sim­ plified model of a few sentences, the gist of the argument is as follows. An important Wola ethic is that individuals should be free to govern their own actions, so long as they do not infringe on the rights of others to do likewise, and this poses problems for their effective social organisation. The first chapters of this book show that although they are collected together into discrete named groups which occupy specific territories, the value which the Wola place on the sovereignty of the individual makes it impossible to account for the order of their society in terms of recognised obligations to them. They do not organise themselves according to obligations to any corporate political groups under the direction of acknowledged leaders, action groups in their society are ad hoc collections of people who unite to pursue common goals. Later chapters go on to argue that in the absence of established sociological mechanisms for encouraging co-operation in an acephalous society, it is the exchange of wealth which gives order to Wola social life. 1 Various events prompt exchanges and oblige men to give or receive wealth with those to whom they stand in a certain relationship. These are often elaborate and may involve a series of transactions spread over a number of years. They oblige people to interact amicably and with consideration for one 1 This book presents a considerable amount of quantitative evidence on different exchanges to support this argument. It presents this largely in diagrams and graphs, which are easier to read than tables. But any reader interested in following up this evidence in detail will find it recorded in tables in my Ph D. dissertation at Cambridge. vi/7 Preface another, and by co-operating in them men keep up smooth relations with one another. And exchange maintains order without interfering unduly with an individual’s freedom; indeed it is in their interests to excel at it and achieve renown. This study deals with the traditional constitution of Wola society. Where pertinent it mentions any changes that have resulted from contact with the outside world, but the society described here is essentially the one which I studied and in which I am currently living. Indeed it is arguable that the social checks and balances centring on exchange are as important for main­ taining order now as they were in the recent stone age past, what with the gradual breakdown in law as imposed by the central government and peoples’ increasing tendency to settle their dif­ ferences in the old way—through revenge and war. I have carried out the fieldwork on which this study stands while living in the settlement of Haelaelinja, which is situated in the Was river valley in the Nipa district of the Southern Highlands. My wife and I lived there from July 1973 until September 1974, and it was during this stay that I collected the greater part of the material presented in this book. I have supplemented it, and corrected some points, since our return to the Was valley in late 1976 to pursue further fieldwork, in which we are currently engaged. The research which has gone into this work has depended on the help and co-operation of many people, and I owe them all a debt of gratitude for which the few words of thanks I offer here can only be a token exchange repayment. My largest debt is to my wife Jackie who has shared with me the experience of living in a remote place with strange people whose ways have sometimes frustrated and confused us. During the fieldwork and while I struggled to write up the material we collected, she has given freely of her help, advice and, most importantly when the going became difficult, her encouragement. Without her this book would have been incomparably poorer than it is, and I cannot thank her enough.

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