Nahau: Gavman, Pihi Manus, Lain: Articulating Gendered Historicities between Mortuary Time and Archival Space

Abstract

This paper is structured in three parts, each aimed at illuminating the interwoven gendered articulations of historicity. In Part 1, I briefly introduce the ethnographic context. In Part 2, I focus on the concept of discourse which refers to the ways knowledge about a particular subject or place or people is constructed through statements and formal language. Discourse is usually dominated by powerful experts, officials or scholars to construct knowledge that is used to represent or portray the non-Western Other. (Foucault 1971; Hall 2019; Said 1978). Focusing on Papua New Guinea, I cursorily problematise the different but interrelated discourses about Melanesian exchange and gender relations or women to highlight two things. First, historicity, as I use it here, is gendered. Second, the different discourses on Melanesia shape portrayals of the PNG gendered subject. In Part 3, I apply the analytical frames of mortuary time and archival space in the ethnographic context to reflect on historicity as gendered and relational. I am deeply implicated in this story, and to help me put some distance between myself and personal relationships I refer to family members by name while I make visible my positionality in the writing.