A University of Queensland anthropologist is providing expert advice on a large and argumentative Papua New Guinean tribe whose members seem set to receive considerable oil royalties.
Lecturer in anthropology Dr Laurence Goldman is the world anthropological authority on the colorful Huli tribe of the Papua New Guinea southern highlands.
They are known as the Wig Men of Papua because of their magnificent ceremonial wigs created with net, human hair, and possum skins.
Many members of the 100,000-strong Huli cultural group have no roads, no health services, no water, no TV and no electricity and came into sustained contact with Western culture only 30 years ago.
But many members are likely to undergo great social change because their home region has the largest gas, and some of the largest oil, reserves in the southern hemisphere.
Once royalty agreements are signed, particular landowners will reap two percent earnings on considerable oil reserves estimated to be in the area. A proposal has been made to pipe gas findings across the Torres Strait to North Queensland.
Dr Goldman said people were well aware of the wealth in oil and would try to maximise their benefits from companies using a forensic logic not common in Western culture.
'For example, if Huli people are hired to cut seismic lines for drilling machines, they will argue that they are neglecting their other duties of finding or preparing food and looking after children,' he said.
'They will seek compensation from companies for neglect of their family responsibilities through a type of legal logic of responsibility.'
Major international oil and gas companies Chevron and Esso/BP have engaged Dr Goldman to provide expert advice on the social organisation of the Huli people and how it relates to the land. The consultancy advice includes maps illustrating affiliations between cultural groups and land areas.
Dr Goldman has also provided a training manual for Chevron to take genealogies of families to determine their clan membership.
The reports have been presented to the Papua New Guinean Government to fulfil consultancy requirements before drilling can commence. The Government has recently introduced new schemes incorporating land groups where each person has to be registered as a clan member and a land owner to receive royalties.
Dr Goldman said several years ago massive alleuvial gold deposits had been found in the same region at Mt Kare.
'Anthropological studies were not made before mining commenced to determine clanship and connect the people to the land,' he said.
'It was not appreciated that their concept of a contract was completely different to ours,' he said.
Dr Goldman said to compensate for their lack of infrastructure, the Huli people appeared to have poured their artistic energies into developing highly sophisticated disputation rituals.
'They are one of the largest and most argumentative of the 700 cultural groups in Papua New Guinea's 3.5 million population,' he said.
'Their skill in talking is reflected in the fact that many senior members of Government and ministers have been Huli.'
Dr Goldman undertook his PhD at London University and selected the Huli cultural group for study at the suggestion of his supervisor.
'Anthropologists have worked co-operatively to improve knowledge of Papua New Guinea's diverse cultural makeup,' he said.
'The sensible way has been for different anthropologists to specialise in different cultural groups, and as it turned out, I appear to have become the specialist on the Huli.'
Dr Goldman has visited the Huli every three years for the past 20 years, and has written four books on the group: The Culture of Coincidence; Talk Never Dies - the Language of Huli Disputes; Premarital Sex Cases among the Huli, and a book currently in press: Like You Can't Imagine - Between mimesis and mythos in Huli Child Pretend Play.
He believes the current project provides an important opportunity for the University to provide expertise for the world's biggest oil companies and in future, to chart the impact of the development on the Huli.
That impact might not be long in coming. With massive wealth, and not a lot to spend it on, the Huli could alter some of their current priorities.
'A neighbouring group to the Huli, the Fasu, recently signed royalty agreements,' he said.
'Their bride price has subsequently gone up from nine pigs to 40,000 kina (about A$40,000).
'Exploration companies have realised that sudden wealth may create problems and are setting up business development sections to advise people on how to use their money.'
For further information, contact Dr Goldman (telephone 07 3365 3178, email l.goldman@mailbox.uq.edu.au).
.jpg)
