Otto, Ton (2013) Back to the village: return migrants and the changing discourse of tradition in Manus, Papua New Guinea. Anthropological Forum, 23 (4). pp. 428-440.

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Abstract

This paper discusses an aspect of the Melanesian kastom discourse that is demonstrated very cogently in the work of Robert Tonkinson, namely the striking contrast between national and local concepts of tradition. In Manus local notions of objectified tradition have been called kastom in Tok Pisin for about 35 years. Recently, the word kalsa has become popular as well. In this article I show how the meanings of these two terms have bifurcated and now represent quite different views on cultural heritage, ownership, and change. I argue that return migrants have taken their urban views to the village setting and that the resulting contest of meanings and practices has engendered the new semantic division between two different concepts of tradition. Events during a large cultural festival held in 2006/7 are discussed to show the emergence of the new discourse.

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