contested order: gender and society in the southern New Guinea Highlands

A clan‐centered view of Highland New Guinea social structure limits the understanding of male/female relations, as well as of relations between leaders and ordinary people. In some Highlands societies, exchange partnership networks constitute an alternative form of sociality to clanship. In the Mendi Valley of the Southern Highlands Province, the practical logic of network relationships (in which both men and women participate) and of clanship (represented as an exclusively “male” relationship) are partially complementary, partially at odds. This ambiguity defines an arena for argument among social actors concerning the constitution of their social order. In places like Mendi, the organization of clan‐sponsored events (like pig festivals) by leaders and other men is a contingent and contested achievement.[Melanesia, social structure, exchange, gender, inequality] 1989 American Anthropological Association