Wronska-Friend, Maria (2023) Shell-rings of power: gender relations in material culture production on the Aitape Islands, Papua New Guinea. Pacific Arts, 23 (2). pp. 4-24.

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Abstract

This article first introduces shell ornaments and pottery on the Aitape Islands in New Guinea, discussing the role of women in their production during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It then turns to material culture produced by men—cult houses and canoes—that depended on supplies obtained by trading women’s products like shell valuables. By discussing these two gendered art forms together, this article shows how integral women’s labour was to the larger social and economic structures in New Guinea that have predominantly been associated with men. It concludes by discussing how colonisation, missionisation, and the introduction of a monetary economy impacted the gendered relations of art production in the islands.

Item ID:	82531
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2769-108X
Keywords:	Aitape Islands, Papua New Guinea, women’s labour, women’s labor, shell ornaments, canoes, religious art
Copyright Information:	Copyright 2023 by the author(s). This work is made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Date Deposited:	02 Apr 2024 01:29
FoR Codes:	44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4401 Anthropology > 440102 Anthropology of gender and sexuality @ 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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