Introduction Chapter 1

Notes Introduction 1. Australia ruled Papua (formerly British New Guinea) as a territory from 1906; in 1921, Australia assumed rule of the Territory of New Guinea (formerly Ger- man New Guinea) by mandate of the League of Nations. The two territories were first jointly administered by Australia in 1949 as the UN Trust Territory of Papua and New Guinea; a Legislative Council was established in 1951. In 1964, the Legislative Council was replaced by a House of Assembly with an elected indigenous majority. The territories were renamed “Papua New Guinea” in July 1971. Self-government was granted in December 1973, and full independence followed on September 16, 1975. Chapter 1 1. The scene was filmed at a site known as “God’s Window,” a popular vantage point on the great escarpment along the Blyde River Canyon in South Africa. 2. Callon et al. (2002) use ideas associated with actor network theory to imagine their “economy of qualities.” For example, processes of qualification are instances of “translation”: “all the negotiations, intrigues, calculations, acts of persuasion and violence, thanks to which an actor or force takes, or causes to be conferred on itself, authority to speak or act on behalf of another actor or force” (Callon and Latour 1981, 279; see Callon 1986). The sociological method appropriate to actor network theory is one of following, that is, of following the associations and dissociations by which actors (including non-human actors) bind and unbind themselves and other actors into networks of varying length and durability. In this regard, actor network theory and its method converge with anthropological studies, such as my own, that track commodities in motion and trace networks of perspectives (see Introduction). 3. In 1988, Moffet observed Tushum’s influence at work in San Juan Chamula: “Whatever the motivation, Chamulans are undoubtedly some of the world’s most fanatical Pepsi consumers. Chamulans use Pepsi in church ceremonies, chanting as the bubbles fizz to the top of a just-opened bottle. A few cases of Pepsi are a major part of a dowry. Almost invariably, a Chamulan trying to patch up a serious dispute with a friend will set before him a bottle of Pepsi. Nearly every Chamulan house displays a Pepsi poster, a crucifix and a red, white 242 Notes and green banner of the PRI” (Moffet 1988). Belew (2003, 20) notes that in 2003, the majority of Catholics in San Juan Chamula preferred Coke over Pepsi to burp out the evil spirits killed by the consumption of poch. 4. Belew (2003, 22) notes: “Conversions to Evangelical Protestantism continue at a remarkable rate. One of the major draws of the religion is its prohibition on alcohol consumption—the Catholics require alcohol consumption and the Protestants forbid it at any cost. As a result, many women who are domestically abused by alcoholic husbands push for conversions to Protestantism that sym- bolize personal safety.” 5. The Belgian crisis reminds us of how consumer goods—especially ingestibles and comestibles—can define flashpoints for struggles over trust relations. Such struggles emerge particularly clearly in situations where people encounter goods not previously seen in the local marketplace. Timothy Burke thus describes the introduction of Stork Margarine to southern Africa in the 1940s and 1950s. Originally marketed by Lever Brothers in a wrapper with a picture of a baby on it, the margarine quickly prompted rumors that it was in fact “ren- dered baby fat, proof of the ghoulish practices of the settlers” (Burke 1996, 162). The rumors registered the way in which goods made in unknown places by unknown people harbor the capacity to arouse fears and anxieties and to dis- rupt the distanciated relations of trust intrinsic to modernity. 6. See Caplan 2000 on scares over eating beef in Britain. Caplan notes that the response to a breakdown in impersonal trust is often a reassertion of personal trust: “Trust, then, came from knowledge, ‘knowing’ where the meat had come from, under what conditions it had been produced, and, above all, knowing the person who sold it” (2000, 193). Similarly, the restoration of confidence in the products of The Coca-Cola Company could only begin with a personal apology by then CEO Douglas Ivester to all Belgian consumers, an apology seen by many at the time as coming long after it was due. 7. It is precisely this misalignment that is exploited if not actually sustained by advertising agencies that sell their expertise in knowing local consumers to transnational clients marketing global brands (see Mazzarella 2003). Chapter 2 1. Pasi Falk (1991) argues that Coke is the perfect “synthesis drink,”mediating the oppositions between intoxicant and medicine, and pleasure and sobriety, as well as tradition and modernity. 2. Confidence is the right word (trust in trust, impersonal trust, or systemic trust), though the word that marketers themselves use is trust, in part because they imagine and speak of the relationship between companies and consumers in highly interpersonal terms (see Luhmann 1988). 3. TO Digest was a wartime publication of The Coca-Cola Company that ceased operation in 1948. All quotes from TOs in this chapter come from issues of TO Notes 243 Digest, a copy of which is held in the Mark Pendergrast Research Files, box 25, item 1. 4. Melanesian men, who worked as stretcher bearers, scouts, and soldiers on behalf of the Allies, were called “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels” by the Australian and American troops. The patronizing image of the “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel” domi- nates a particular version of Australian national history that depicts indigenous Papuans and New Guineans as loyal “colonial subjects who did not exercise choices in response to the war’s disruption of their lives” (Reed 1999, 162). The image has also been invoked by PNG war veterans repeatedly seeking compen- sation from the Australian government. 5. Friedman (1992) also discusses how the double-sided nature of Coca-Cola— American and universal—was constructed and narrated in the exhibits at the old World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. 6. This view of global commodity culture inverts David Suzuki’s view (Chapter 1) in one respect: whereas Suzuki denies any agency to Papua New Guineans in negotiating the consumption of foreign imports, the Pepsi bottlers assign Papua New Guineans complete agency, the sovereignty of the free market consumer. At the same time, however, both views treat consumer commodities as having fixed or inert meanings; soft drinks always and everywhere mean West- ern modernity. These meanings can be accepted or rejected, but not trans- formed or remade. 7. Nolan’s (1999) informative overview of the Coca-Cola product network (or supply chain) documents the ramifications of selling soft drinks on a global scale. The Coca-Cola system, Nolan estimates, purchases approximately 30 percent of the world’s total production of cans, 5 percent of glass containers, 4 percent of sugar, and 30 percent of high fructose corn syrup. 8. Friedman (1993) notes that The Coca-Cola Company responded to the Atlanta Board of Education’s concern that there be enough clearly “educational” con- tent in the displays at the World of Coca-Cola by installing video booths that show five-minute clips integrating the history of Coke into the history of the United States. As a result, the old World of Coca-Cola was regularly visited by busloads of students visiting the nearby Georgia state capitol. 9. Insistence on quality control is a salient aspect of the company’s public face. A 1994 article in a PNG business magazine, for example, recounts a tour of the Port Moresby bottling facility much like that on which we were led by David Lane. The article notes that some bottles are returned “in a pretty filthy state,” but that the bottle washing process is “rather severe” in removing dirt and killing microbes: “CCA are concerned about their reputation because Coca- Cola, USA, imposes rigid standards of quality control. If these are not observed by the company which holds the bottling franchise, there is a clause in the franchise agreement which can cause them to lose it” (“Your Quality Control” 1994). In the company’s 2002 citizenship report, quality control and manage- ment of supply chains were offered as evidence of responsiveness to consumers: “At The Coca-Cola Company, quality belongs to all of us, not just to a single department. The Coca-Cola Quality System establishes standards, 244 Notes self-assessments and continuous improvements that guide quality in products, processes and relationships across the Company. This includes everything from the conditions of physical facilities to advertising and trademark use to ingre- dient sourcing, packaging and distribution, as well as regulatory compliance and safety.” 10. Since at least 1997, PNG Recycling has purchased cans for recycling and export. There is no facility for recycling plastic (PET) bottles in the country. In its 2004 annual report, CCA notes that since 1999, CCA Fiji has been buying back empty PET bottles for recycling as part of the Mission Pacific program, in which consumers are paid by the kilogram for returned containers: “Over this period, an estimated 35 million PET bottles have been shipped to Australia for recycling into new bottles.”It is unclear from the report whether a similar program is operating in PNG, where concern over the environmental impact of plastic waste led to the introduction of bans on the import, manufacture, and sale of plastic shopping bags beginning in 2005. 11. “We designate certain bottling operations in which we have a noncontrolling ownership interest as ‘anchor bottlers’ due to their level of responsibility and performance. The strong commitment of anchor bottlers to their own prof- itable volume growth helps us meet our strategic goals and furthers the inter- ests of our worldwide production, distribution and marketing systems.

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