Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Dedication v
3. Contents vii
4. List of Illustrations viii
5. Acknowledgements ix
6. General Maps xiii
7. Note on Language xv
8. Introduction: Land Politics and Postcolonial Sociality in the Wake of Environmental Disaster 1
9. 1 An Orientation to the Shifting Patterns of Tolai Land Tenure 30
10. 2 Land at Sikut: Freedom from Kastom and Economic Development 39
11. 3 Kulia An Ambiguous Transaction 61
12. 4 What Makes a Landholder: A Case Study of a Matupit Land Dispute 75
13. 5 Kastom, Family and Clan: Extending and Limiting Obligations 100
14. 6 Kastom and Contested Reciprocity 121
15. 7 Big Shots, Corned Beef and Big Heads 141
16. 8 A Fish Trap for Kastom 154
17. 9 Big Men, Big Shots and Bourgeois Individuals: Conflicts over Moral Obligation and the Limits of Reciprocity 176
18. 10 Your Own Buai You Must Buy: The Big Shot as Contemporary Melanesian Possessive Individual 212
19. Conclusions 231
20. Glossary 241
21. References 245
22. Index 253