Heading off...

I thought it would be a good idea to write something before I go to the field. I had my PhD research proposal viva the other day with Tony Crook and Huon Wardle, and my tickets are booked for the 11th of April, so now is as good a time as any. I thought it went well, I had no revisions to make, though it was not without 'robust debate'. The question which arises after these first sentences is what I want this blog to be, an account of my thoughts and feelings? a diary of events? an anthropological assessment as I go along? Well we can discount the latter, much as it would be an interesting experiment, I dont want to make public things which I may change my mind about, or to make premature judgements which might affect others (and myself) detrementally. It has to be something of the first two, with a little context from my anthropological training as and when. Essentially, this is a way of reaching people easily, to let you know how I am doing, and give some idea of what my daily life is like in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. I have a diary to overfeel in, so it wont be too soppy I promise.

So, the set up:

For those who dont know I am doing a PhD in social anthropology at the University of St Andrews, supervised by Dr. Adam Reed, and am about to do my period of fieldwork in Goroka Town in Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea, for the following 18 months. I will be studying gambling as well as other activities related to calculative decisions. By this I mean all things money related, as well as counting systems (peoples way of counting with their bodies, in 10's and 100's or not, etc.), and different peoples attitudes towards gambling. I will basically be conducting interviews with gamblers, their families, religious leaders, judges, specialists in indigenous mathematics, and anyone else who knows something I dont. I will also be gambling, and watching others do it, with migrants and locals, learning the games, and watching money circulate.

In more detail my work is about the relation between 'gift exchange', the traditional economy of certain Papua New Guinean groups, and the money economy which is now everywhere in PNG. Meanwhile PNG is famous for its diversity of languages and counting systems, yet gambling, which is not indigenous, has spread across the country very rapidly indeed, despite the games relying (to Our eyes) on a particular numerical understanding (to do with the decimal system and an appreciation of odds) which is often quite different from recorded traditional numerical and gift exchange knowledge. This coincides with the spread of money, and how these combine is the focus of my project. It also focuses on causality, how people perceive why events occur, to do with both chance and fate etc, but from a PNG perspective. As a result I am doing a semi-urban ethnography (this word is what anthropologists do in the field) in a town called Goroka in the Highlands of PNG of 24,000 people, and following migrants back to their villages to observe differences between the two places in terms of my project.

Anyway, in order to prevent sending annoying group emails every now and then (as I said in the email), I am going to write this blog, and anyone curious can check it or comment whenever they want, without pressure, well you know how a blog works. I will try to update it regularly (once every few weeks). Unfortunately this first one is necessarily a bit dull as I am not really doing anything, I hope you find later ones interesting...