Land, Power, Change: Entanglements of Custom and Modernity in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste

Land, Power, Change: Entanglements of Custom and Modernity in Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Victoria Stead School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, Design and Social Context RMIT University, Melbourne April 2013 i ii Declaration I declare that except where due acknowledgement has been made, the work is that of the author alone; the work has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, to qualify for any other academic award; the content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the approved research program; any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged; and ethics procedures and guidelines have been followed. Victoria Stead April 2013 iii Sections from three chapters of this thesis have been published elsewhere. The majority of Chapter Four was published in 2012 as ‘Embedded in the Land: Customary Social Relations and Practices of Resilience in an East Timorese Community' in The Australian Journal of Anthropology 23(2): 229-247. Large parts of Chapter Five, and sections of Chapter Two have been published as ‘Greeting the State: Entanglements of Custom and Modernity on Papua New Guinea’s Rai Coast’ in Anthropological Forum: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Comparative Sociology 23(1) (forthcoming 2013). Sections of Chapter Seven will appear as ‘The Price of Fish: Problematising Discourses of Prosperity at the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone’ in Jonathan Ritchie and Michelle Verso, eds., Securing a Prosperous Future: Papers from the second annual Alfred Deakin Research Institute Papua New Guinea Symposium, 2012 , Goolwa: Crawford House Publishing (forthcoming 2013). I am grateful to to the editors and publishers for their permission to reprint the material here. iv Acknowledgments The completion of this thesis has been possible only because of the support of a tremendous number of people—many more than I have space to name here. At home, I have been fortunate to have two thoughtful and committed supervisors. Damian Grenfell has challenged me, encouraged me, prompted me to explore new angles, and reigned me in when my enthusiasm for new angles went spiraling out of control (often all in the space of a single meeting). Kim Humphrey has been a much-valued second supervisor, intervening at all the right moments with sharp insights and gentle provocations. I thank all of my colleagues at the Globalism Research Centre at RMIT for giving me such a stimulating intellectual home. Particularly, I am grateful for the spectacular community of PhD students and early career researchers of which I have been lucky to be a part—Anna Trembath and Mayra Walsh (both of whom have also been with me at key points of my field work in Timor-Leste), Erin Wilson, Andy Scerri, Anne McNevin, Elizabeth Kath, Rachel Sharples and Robin Cameron. In the field, my thanks go out to the many informants and friends who have taught me so much over the past four years, hosting me in their homes and communities, and sharing their time and knowledge. In PNG, particularly, my friends at the Bismarck Ramu Group have provided unfailing support, both material and emotional, across the past four years. John, Rosa, Yat, Barry, Tamana, Poin, Gigi, Maggie, Howard, Annie, JW, Frank, Bailal—you have my heartfelt respect. In Timor-Leste, my thanks go particularly to Carmenesa Noronha, a generous friend and colleague, and to my two local research assistants, Avito Julio Hendriques and Ambrosio Dias Fernandes. Across both countries, I extend my gratitude to the leaders and residents of the communities where I have spent time. In PNG—Sausi, Rempi, Nobnob, Siar, Bongu, and Riwo. In Timor-Leste—Cacavei, Aitarak Laran, Farol, Bebora. Finally , my deepest thanks go to my family. My parents, Ian and Linda Stead, taught me to ask questions about the world, and my brother Timothy was my companion at Sunday dinner family book club. My step-daughter Libby, for whom this project has taken quite literally half a lifetime, has born my repeated absences with extraordinary good grace, and been a constant source of joy throughout. Above all, my thanks go to my partner James Oliver, for his love, patience and kindness. v vi Contents Declaration ................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... v Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Introduction................................................................................................................................... 3 Entanglement: An Intellectual and Methodological Framework ................................................... 33 2. Approaching custom and modernity ........................................................................................... 35 3. Methodology: An ethnography of entangled social relations .................................................... 61 Land and Power ............................................................................................................................ 81 4. Embedded in the land: Customary social relations and connection to land .............................. 83 5. Greeting the state: Ambivalent entanglement and cartographies of power ........................... 109 Becoming Landowners in Papua New Guinea ............................................................................. 139 6. Relations of property and the codification of customary connection to land .......................... 141 7. Making Land Work? The economic and cultural politics of development ................................ 169 Becoming Landowners in Timor-Leste ......................................................................................... 195 8. Land titling, state-building, and urban-rural imaginaries.......................................................... 197 9. Becoming squatters: the eviction of Aitarak Laran ................................................................... 225 10. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 251 References ................................................................................................................................. 267 vii viii Abstract This thesis develops a critical account of encounters between customary and modern forms of relationship to land in two Melanesian countries, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. Specifically, it asks: what are the implications of these encounters for relations of power? In both Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste, customary land tenures provide the dominant mechanism for the organization of land. Nevertheless, processes of globalization, state- and nation-building are catalysing the extension of modern forms of connection to land, anchored in an understanding of land as property and as an economic resource to be utilized within capitalist, and specifically neoliberal, relations of production and ‘development’. As different forms of connection to land intersect, so too are differing forms of identity and belonging, differing visions of the world and of the self, brought into contestation. Across the thesis, entanglement is developed as a core theoretical concept, speaking to the dynamic and ambivalent nature of this contested social field. Through a metaphor of entanglement, the customary and modern are conceptualized as ontologically distinct patterns of practice and meaning; forms of social relations that cut across the boundaries of social groups rather than being synonymous with them. Methodologically, the thesis is positioned in the iterative space between generalizing theory and on-the-ground particularity, drawing together social theoretical enquiry with multi-sited ethnographic research in remote, urban, and peri-urban communities. Theory, anchored in the concept and metaphor of entanglement , is developed to the extent that such a mode of thinking can offer a particular quality of illumination upon processes and experiences that are also local and contingent. So positioned, the thesis argues that the entanglement of customary and modern forms of connection to land destabilise structures of power in ways that create multiple possibilities for their reconfiguration. At a level of generality, there is a dominant tendency towards the diminishing autonomy of local communities, as power and decision-making capacity shifts to the sites, agents and processes of the state and globalising capital, and as customary ways of life—including forms of connection to land—are ideologically and normatively devalued. In theoretical terms, the abstracted nature of modern social relations lends them a coercive capacity over less abstracted, customary ones. Nonetheless, customary forms of sociality are also able to accommodate a considerable degree of abstraction. Entanglements, then, also generate new possibilities for the rearticulation and reassertion of customary connection to land, and of the forms of power and authority to which that connection gives rise. 1 2 1. Introduction The four of them are sitting around a table—three Papua New Guinean men and a white woman, a lawyer. The men are

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