Research output per year
Research output per year
Professor, Department of Anthropology, School of Culture, History & Language, Emeritus Professor
Research activity per year
During 1974-2015 my research was concentrated on the ethnography of (Austronesian) North Mekeo peoples of the Central Province of PNG. My publications focused on traditional and changing patterns of social organization, religion and cosmology, myth, personhood, gender, chieftainship, commoditization, land tenure, and Christian conversion. Intermittently over the years, I undertook several comparative studies of Mekeo with the Trobriand Islanders as classically described by Malinowski, Weiner and others. Beginning in 2006 with annual 2-3 month visits, I refocused my field and archival research on Trobrian culture and society based at Omarakana village - home of the Paramount Chief, Daniel Pulayasi - investigating inigenous and changing patterns of personhood, agency and exchange in contexts of kula, sexuaslity and reproduction, magic, gambling, gardening, commodification, Christian conversion, and chiefly leadership. These studies have resulted in a major critique and reinterpretation of the canonical view of the Trobriands that has had a uniquely substantial impact on social anthropology theory and method.
From the start, I have been strongly influenced theoretically by British and French social anthropology. My work falls generally within the parameters of structuralism and the New Melanesian Ethnography closely associated with writings by Marilyn Strathern, Roy Wagner, Alfred Gell, among others. From that perspective, I have engaged in critical debates with numerous anthropological luminaries including Malinowski, Marshall Sahlins, Colin Turnbull, Louis Dumont, Annette Weiner, Andrew Strathern, Joel Robbins, and others. Several of those discussions focused upon novel comparative examinations of Hindu Asian, Mbuti, ancient Hawaiian, Urapmin as well as Trobriand ethnography. From that perspective also, I have investigated the analytical parallels between British and French anthropology and chaos theory of the natural sciences.
Career Highlights
Ethnographic research: North Mekeo (4 years on 13 fieldtrips 1974-2009), Roro (3 months 2005-2006); Trobriands (28 months 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018).
Major research grants: NIGMS (1970-1978), NIH (1993-1994), Wenner-Gren (1994-1995, 2005-2007, 2009-2012), New Zealand Royal Society/Marsden Fund (1999-2004), Australian Research Council/Discovery (2009-2012); Elected Fellow, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (2004); 2008 Curl Prize for Best Essay, Royal Anthropological Institute; 2009 Osmundsen Initiative Award, Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Social anthropology; symbolism; kinship; cultural change; leadership; personhood; agency; gift exchange theory; religion; Christianity; chaos theory; Melanesia/Pacific
Anthropology, PhD, The Legacy of Akaisa: Categories, Relations and Homologies in Bush Mekeo Culture, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
1970 → 1980
Award Date: 15 Sept 1980
Emeritus Professor, School of Culture, History an, Emeritus Professor, School of Culture, History and Language, ANU
2015 → 2024
Professor, School of Culture, History and Language, ANU, Professor, HOD, School of Culture, History and Language, ANU
2001 → 2015
Professor, HOD Auckland University, The University of Auckland
1993 → 2001
Research Fellow, Research School of Pacific and Asian Stuies, ANU, Research Fellow, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
1989 → 1991
Asst Professor, Assoc Professor, Head of Department, Hartwick College, Oneonta NY
1980 → 1993
Research output: Contribution to journal › Literature review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Other contribution
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Research output: Contribution to journal › Literature review
1/07/15 → 30/09/18
Project: Research
15/03/10 → 28/02/11
Project: Research
1/02/10 → 31/10/12
Project: Research
Mosko, M. & Huang, Y.
1/10/07 → 1/07/09
Project: Research