@phdthesis{110278,
  author          = {Brison, Karen Jane},
  pages           = {357},
  school          = {University of California at San Diego},
  title           = {Gossip, Innuendo, and Sorcery: Village Politics Among the Kwanga, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea},
  year            = {1988},
  abstract        = {The Kwanga hold long community meetings to discuss disputes and matters of common concern, and to find the cause of deaths (almost always sorcery). The dissertation attempts to explain what the meetings accomplish and why they take the form they do. Meetings were tape recorded and discussed with informants. Using an extended case method approach issues were traced before, during, and after the public debate. Comparisons were made with other small close knit villages and with neighboring groups. The putative purpose of meetings was to find solutions to problems but they often apparently failed because they could not distinguish truth from rumor to establish the facts. But, in fact, public discussion of gossip warned people that they were under suspicion and would be held accountable for future actions and, thus, discouraged wrong doing. As well, gossips were chastised in meetings, and some rumors were shown to be false, thus checking the tendency for conflict to escalate. Big men gained prestige by making forceful statements and accusations to frighten others into compliance. This system of social control and political action was adapted to acephalous Kwanga social structure. Initiated men formed a community of relative equals. Attempts to command were resented and led to loss of support and possibly retaliation. Division of the village into rivalrous moieties cross-cut by kin ties guaranteed that rumor rapidly departed from fact and small conflicts quickly divided the community into hostile factions. Gossip was transmitted across moieties by kinsmen and a suspicious attitude between moieties led people to read darker meaning into seemingly trivial information obtained in this manner. Meetings helped to check these rumors. These behaviors are common in small acephalous communities. Community members are dependent on each other for mutual aid and social interaction and so act covertly instead of taking direct public action which might offend others. Unless such covert action is checked communal ventures will be impossible.},
  adviser         = {Bailey, F. G.},
  bestfn          = {papua\brison_kwanga1988_o.pdf},
  besttxt         = {ptxt2\papua\brison_kwanga1988_o.txt},
  cfn             = {papua\brison_kwanga1988_o.pdf},
  degree          = {PhD},
  delivered       = {papua\brison_kwanga1988_o.pdf},
  digital_formats = {PDF 17.36Mb image-only PDF},
  fn              = {papua\brison_kwanga1988.pdf, papua\brison_kwanga1988_o.pdf},
  hhtype          = {ethnographic},
  inlg            = {English [eng]},
  isbn            = {9780520077003, 9780520912182},
  lgcode          = {Kwanga [kwj]},
  macro_area      = {Papunesia},
  oclc            = {5104803352},
  source          = {DAI-A 49/11, p. 3407, May 1989},
  src             = {hh},
  subject         = {ANTHROPOLOGY, CULTURAL (0326)},
  umi_id          = {8902725}
}