Interdependence is a fundamental characteristic of human existence. The way in which certain depe... more Interdependence is a fundamental characteristic of human existence. The way in which certain dependencies are acknowledged as opposed to those that are hidden, or the ways in which some are validated while others are denigrated, is central to how social inequalities are reproduced and recreated. In this introduction we explore how particular dependencies are categorized, separated, and made visible or invisible as part of their performative effect. In particular, we explore the distinction between wage labor and kinship as two forms of relatedness that are often separated in terms of the (in)dependence that they are seen to embody. Even though they are practically entangled, their conceptual separation remains important. These conceptual separations are central to how gender difference is imagined and constituted globally.
Mainstream economic theories of the firm argue that the boundary between firm and market is deter... more Mainstream economic theories of the firm argue that the boundary between firm and market is determined by efficiency-enhancing logics which optimise coordination or bargaining outcomes. Drawing on social anthropological work, this paper critiques these accounts, arguing instead that firms are socially embedded and that firm boundary formation should therefore be understood as an attempt to fix the limits of certain relational rights and obligations that are moral in their conception. Consequently, boundaries are often contested and subject to renegotiation. We employ the parsimonious concepts of ‘dams and flows’ to examine how attempts to curtail the claims of some stakeholders and extend the claims of others at any one historical moment produce boundaries of different kinds. To illustrate this, we first trace the moral arguments used to advance limited liability rights to shareholders during the Companies Act in the mid-nineteenth century, which cut or ‘dammed’ obligations at a par...
Much recent anthropological theory demonstrates a concern to defend indigenous ontologies against... more Much recent anthropological theory demonstrates a concern to defend indigenous ontologies against allegedly singular and oppressive colonial or modernist settlements. These Western settlements are said to rely upon conceptual separations such as that between nature and culture or between nature and beliefs. Such conceptual separations are held to be at the heart of the malign effects that Western modernity is perceived as creating as they are relentlessly imposed upon non-Western indigenous peoples. De la Cadena, for example, argues that a distinction between (scientific) truth and (cultural) belief has been at the heart of modernist projects to disallow or marginalise the everyday and ritual relations with non-human ‘earth beings’ (such as living sacred mountains) that she describes as being central to Latin American ‘indigenous’ ways of being. The moves to protect the tubuan, a ritual figure and non-human actor held to be of great importance by many of Tolai people in Papua New Gu...
The annual Papua New Guinea Mask, held in the town of Rabaul, is organized by the government in o... more The annual Papua New Guinea Mask, held in the town of Rabaul, is organized by the government in order to, "preserve and protect culture in PNG," yet it is also explicitly envisaged as a potential tourist attraction. There are often tensions between the two stated purposes of the event, with local critics arguing that the event damages rather than preserves custom. The participation of the tubuan, a masked dancing figure of the local Tolai people, provokes particular concern; tubuans mark the relationships between clans and the propriety of raising them when they "have no work to do" is questioned. This is not the only controversy surrounding the festival. Since a volcanic eruption in 1994 the provincial capital has been moved to the nearby town of Kokopo, provoking anger among those with commercial interests in Rabaul. They suspect corrupt financial motives lie behind attempts to move the Festival to Kokopo. These two seemingly unrelated controversies both expres...
Interdependence is a fundamental characteristic of human existence. The way in which certain depe... more Interdependence is a fundamental characteristic of human existence. The way in which certain dependencies are acknowledged as opposed to those that are hidden, or the ways in which some are validated while others are denigrated, is central to how social inequalities are reproduced and recreated. In this introduction we explore how particular dependencies are categorized, separated, and made visible or invisible as part of their performative effect. In particular, we explore the distinction between wage labor and kinship as two forms of relatedness that are often separated in terms of the (in)dependence that they are seen to embody. Even though they are practically entangled, their conceptual separation remains important. These conceptual separations are central to how gender difference is imagined and constituted globally.
Mainstream economic theories of the firm argue that the boundary between firm and market is deter... more Mainstream economic theories of the firm argue that the boundary between firm and market is determined by efficiency-enhancing logics which optimise coordination or bargaining outcomes. Drawing on social anthropological work, this paper critiques these accounts, arguing instead that firms are socially embedded and that firm boundary formation should therefore be understood as an attempt to fix the limits of certain relational rights and obligations that are moral in their conception. Consequently, boundaries are often contested and subject to renegotiation. We employ the parsimonious concepts of ‘dams and flows’ to examine how attempts to curtail the claims of some stakeholders and extend the claims of others at any one historical moment produce boundaries of different kinds. To illustrate this, we first trace the moral arguments used to advance limited liability rights to shareholders during the Companies Act in the mid-nineteenth century, which cut or ‘dammed’ obligations at a par...
Much recent anthropological theory demonstrates a concern to defend indigenous ontologies against... more Much recent anthropological theory demonstrates a concern to defend indigenous ontologies against allegedly singular and oppressive colonial or modernist settlements. These Western settlements are said to rely upon conceptual separations such as that between nature and culture or between nature and beliefs. Such conceptual separations are held to be at the heart of the malign effects that Western modernity is perceived as creating as they are relentlessly imposed upon non-Western indigenous peoples. De la Cadena, for example, argues that a distinction between (scientific) truth and (cultural) belief has been at the heart of modernist projects to disallow or marginalise the everyday and ritual relations with non-human ‘earth beings’ (such as living sacred mountains) that she describes as being central to Latin American ‘indigenous’ ways of being. The moves to protect the tubuan, a ritual figure and non-human actor held to be of great importance by many of Tolai people in Papua New Gu...
The annual Papua New Guinea Mask, held in the town of Rabaul, is organized by the government in o... more The annual Papua New Guinea Mask, held in the town of Rabaul, is organized by the government in order to, "preserve and protect culture in PNG," yet it is also explicitly envisaged as a potential tourist attraction. There are often tensions between the two stated purposes of the event, with local critics arguing that the event damages rather than preserves custom. The participation of the tubuan, a masked dancing figure of the local Tolai people, provokes particular concern; tubuans mark the relationships between clans and the propriety of raising them when they "have no work to do" is questioned. This is not the only controversy surrounding the festival. Since a volcanic eruption in 1994 the provincial capital has been moved to the nearby town of Kokopo, provoking anger among those with commercial interests in Rabaul. They suspect corrupt financial motives lie behind attempts to move the Festival to Kokopo. These two seemingly unrelated controversies both expres...
Engagement with pressing social and political issues is often presented as a threat to the elabor... more Engagement with pressing social and political issues is often presented as a threat to the elaboration of sophisticated anthropological theory that needs to be protected from such concerns in order to flourish. However the history of anthropological theory demonstrates that some of the discipline's most important contributions have tended to arise as a result of its proponents' desire to engage in such debates. Although we cannot reproduce the cultural models of a previous generation of anthropologists, the future elaboration of ground-breaking anthropological theory depends upon a rediscovery of such engaged work that does not posit engagement versus theoretical development as a zero-sum game.
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Papers by keir martin