Moka Politics

For Intro to Anthropology 2021 after reading about Economies we read chapter 12, “How do anthropologists study political relations?” (369-399) and also watched the 52-minute ethnographic film Ongka’s Big Moka. We used this film to tie together different sections of the course:

  1. Economics: What is the Moka system?
  2. Politics (this class): What authority does Ongka have? What is the relationship between the Kawelka and the nation-state of Papua New Guinea?
  3. Gender: How is the division of labor gendered?
  4. Kinship: How does kinship intersect with economics & politics?
  5. What evidence of colonialism or capitalism do you see?
  6. The film series is titled “Disappearing World.” Is Ongka’s world disappearing?

The next class was on Sex-Gender-Sexuality.