Henry, Rosita, and Wood, Michael (2022) Research, Rituals and Reciprocity: The Promises of Hospitality in Fieldwork. In: Storch, Anne, and Dixon, R.M.W., (eds.) The Art of Language. Brill's Studies in Language, Cognition and Culture . Brill, Leiden, Netherlands, pp. 81-99.

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Abstract

In this paper we draw on anthropological and linguistic research concerning Papua New Guinea (PNG), including the work of Alexandra Aikhenvald, to consider hospitality in fieldwork. We look at how fieldworkers and research participants construct and enact obligations and expectations that arise in the field. With reference to our own fieldwork experiences among the Kumula of the Western Province and the Penambi Wia of the Western Highlands Province, we explore promises as they are expressed especially in formal public definitions of hospitality performed in feasts and field schools and in small rituals of everyday hospitality that focus on dyadic relations between guest and host. We argue that the enactment of hospitality between researchers and their hosts creates expectations of continuing reciprocity in the transfer not only of knowledge but also other yet unknowable, hoped for, potentialities that a continuing social relationship might bring. The promise of hospitality involves an openness to the new, to the unexpected and to the other.

Item ID:	75597
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Scholarly Work)
ISBN:	978-90-04-51039-5
Keywords:	reciprocity; hospitality; Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea; Kamula, Papua New Guinea; ethnography
Related URLs:	Publisher
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2022 by Anne Storch and R.M.W. Dixon.
Date Deposited:	16 Sep 2022 07:10
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4401 Anthropology > 440107 Social and cultural anthropology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1399 Other culture and society > 139999 Other culture and society not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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