Chieftainship and social change in the Trobriand islands: A new theory of leadership and sub-state political dynamics for the Pacific

Knowledge of the dynamics of chiefly polities in the Pacific is currently disjointed. I aim to develop a novel anthropological theory that will unify understanding of these polities by extending new insights concerning non-chiefly societies (i.e. the New Melanesian Ethnography ) to chiefly systems in both traditional and changing settings. Ethnographic fieldwork and archival studies will focus on the renowned but poorly understood Tabalu Paramount Chieftainship of the Trobriand Islands PNG s most hierarchical society. This research will result in publications and workshops providing scholars and policy-makers with a new perspective for assessing the contributions of sub-state leadership to contemporary politics in the Pacific.