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In this article I consider why individuals sacrifice their lives for the collective. In the Porgera Valley of highlands Papua New Guinea, young men who are called 'Rambos' engage in sustained tribal conflicts due to increasing social inequalities in an area that is supposedly benefiting from socioeconomic development. The opening of the Porgera Gold Mine in 1990 ushered in an era of anticipated benefits that were hoped to transform the lives of the region's subsistence horticulturalists. Yet, anticipated flows of mining money and social benefits have largely failed to materialise. The abjection experienced by young men eventuated into a series of tribal fights, resulting in deaths, displacements, and the destruction of most infrastructure. I examine the fighting and its aftermath in relation to anthropologies of the dark and the good and argue that these polar opposites can hinder more subtle understandings of value plurality among Porgerans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two Pacific Island skeletal samples originating from the inland site of Nebira, Papua New Guinea (1230-1650) and a coastal site on the small island of Taumako, Solomon Islands (1530-1698) were examined for evidence of skeletal trauma using a biocultural approach. The types of trauma identified were cranial trauma, postcranial fractures, and piercing and sharp force trauma. Both samples exhibit trauma (Nebira, n = 9/28, 32.1%; Taumako, n = 17/133, 12.8%). Postcranial fractures are significantly higher in males from Nebira (Fisher Exact P value = 0.025). The prevalence of cranial trauma (n = 6/28, 21.4%) is significantly higher in Nebira individuals (Fisher Exact P value = 0.007). There is no conclusive evidence of piercing trauma at Nebira unlike Taumako, which has four individuals with evidence of piercing or sharp force trauma. Both samples show evidence of interpersonal violence and warfare. The results suggest the environment may have contributed to the pattern of trauma at these sites. These patterns are discussed within their cultural and environmental contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After their joint stay in the Sepik region of what is now Papua New Guinea, Margaret Mead's characterisation of the Mountain Arapesh provoked Reo Fortune's opposition. This disagreement did not have an echo comparable to that of the socalled 'Mead-Freeman debate' and it seemed to have been forgotten until it was taken up in a recent volume of the American Anthropologist. The different positions propagated by the ancestors of the scientific community as well as by their descendants can be interpreted as a form of anthropological selfreflection. Presentday scholars who have contributed to this exercise and who know the Sepik region from firsthand experience tend to agree with Fortune in a more or less explicit way and therefore, I argue, anthro pology would be welladvised to hold on to a notion of ethnographic reality as well as to the attempt to approach it by way of participant observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major works on warfare in noncentralized societies have suggested that warfare is spurred by imbalances of power. Intergroup aggression is seen as predatory and aimed at dominance and acquisition (Chagnon 1988; Manson and Wrangham 1991; Meggitt 1977), that is, total warfare conducted with limited means (Keeley 1996). Here it is argued that the imbalance of power hypothesis overlooks the importance of intergroup ties for human production, reproduction, and exchange. An alternate ‘balance of power’ hypothesis is presented: that warfare in simple societies is largely about retaliation to establish a balance of power with allies and enemies so that intergroup social and economic exchange can flow. Data from the Enga of Papua New Guinea are used to examine both hypotheses, concentrating on the motives behind warfare, male coalitionary dynamics, and the outcomes of warfare among the Enga during a 300-year period of rapid change from the introduction of the sweet potato until the adoption of modern high-powered weapons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ the Social Signaling Model (SSM) and life history of a Western Dani big-man, Tibenuk, to analyze a neglected curiosity in the career of the big-man type. The big-man is renowned as an economic entrepreneur, the master of material displays. In New Guinea, however, big-men had invariably first gained fame and some influence as eminent warriors. The SSM accounts for this two-part career path by proposing that small-scale social organization rests on honest, competitive signaling of individual and collective fighting strength, with leaders being those who excel in these contests. The performances for which big-men are already known, conspicuous ceremonial displays, broadcast this strength indirectly. Explicitly conceptualized as symbolic fighting, they constituted indexical proxies for their sponsors' individual and collective willingness and ability to fight. Success on the battlefield, though, signaled fighting strength more directly. Men therefore had to demonstrate strength on both the battlefield and the ceremonial ground if they were to become big-men. This was Tibenuk's achievement. When he was young and at his physical peak, he demonstrated outstanding capability in war. War is a young man's game, however, and as his physical capacities waned, he shifted to politics, an older man's game, honing his political talents and developing extensive political networks that allowed him to sponsor massive pig feasts, the principal form of conspicuous ceremonial display. Tibenuk's career also reveals synergies between warrior and political talents that hitherto have been overlooked in big-man analysis.

In 1990, shotguns and M-16s were adopted into Enga warfare, setting off some 15 years of devastation as youths (~17 to 28) took charge of interclan warfare. In response, people called on elder leaders to adapt customary institutions to restore peace; subsequently, war deaths and the frequency of war declined radically. Data from precolonial warfare, 501 recent wars, and 129 customary court sessions allow us to consider (i) the principles and values behind customary institutions for peace, (ii) their effectiveness, (iii) how they interact with and compare to state institutions of today, and (iv) how such institutions might have shaped our human behavioral repertoire to make life in state societies possible.

Australian forces were involved in warfare in hyperendemic areas of New Guinea from early 1942 until late 1945. Initially they were ill-prepared and suffered very heavy malaria casualties, even when not engaged in fighting. As a result measures were taken to make the supervision of personal protection (clothes, suppressive atebrin, repellent, mosquito nets) a matter for unit commanders rather than a medical problem. Malariologists were appointed and supervised Malaria Control Units, which were moved in with attacking troops, and Entomological Sections were established, which provided advice on vectors of malaria and other arthropod-borne diseases. In successive campaigns the casualties from malaria decreased substantially, especially after active operations in particular campaigns had ended, except in the Aitape-Wewak area, where field observations suggested that some strains of P. falciparum were resistant to the standard dose of suppressive atebrin. This was confirmed in experiments on human volunteers at a malaria research unit in Australia.

A broken end of the spear presenting as a foreign body in the nasopharynx and right maxillary sinus in a 19-year-old Papua New Guinean is described. The types of foreign bodies and their mechanisms of introduction into this site are summarized.

According to the rural Enga people of the Highlands of Papua New Guinea treatment of wounded warriors is a priority issue in health care. If health services there ignore this, the respect and support of the community could be lost. Important public health programmes such as maternal and child health clinics and immunization programmes would suffer as a consequence, because their promotion is not a community priority at present. Accordingly, the health services should improve the training of health workers in the treatment of arrow wounds which are a common problem as a results of constant clan warfare. If the Enga community appreciated that wounded men received satisfactory treatment in rural centres, it would cooperate better with health workers in preventive health programmes.

Wooden tipped arrows are still used in tribal fighting in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Thirteen cases of arrow injury to the heart and mediastinum, presenting at Mt. Hagen Hospital in a 2-year period, are described. Ten cases presented early (within 3 days) while the remaining 3 cases presented late and suffered from mediastinal abscesses. Removal of the arrow, after full visualization with repair where possible, was performed in all cases with two deaths and little morbidity. Most of the 13 patients arrived in a stable condition, withstood surgery well and made a rapid recovery (average stay in hospital 20 days). Unstable presentations included 2 cases of mild shock, one with early cardiac tamponade and one case of acute aortic incompetence. Survival figures justify attempted salvage of these patients, even with the limited facilities available.