Development,Labour Relations and Gender in Papua New Guinea.

This paper examines the relationship between ‘subsistence’ production, simple commodity production and wage labour and the different effects this relationship has on males and females. The peri-urban village of Siar, located a few kilometres north of Madang town in Papua New Guinea, is used as a case study. It is argued that the village as a social group is dependent on wage labour for its reproduction and hence is proletarianized. As part of the proletarianization process, married women in the village have become doubly subordinated: to capital and to men.     

Anticipating Ulawun Volcano in New Britain,Papua New Guinea

ABSTRACT

This paper outlines some of the ways Mengen speakers have positioned Ulawun volcano, its inhabitants and outputs as beneficial features of daily life. By way of contrast, volcanology and more recent disaster planning discourses in Papua New Guinea, have often positioned Ulawun as a hazard that creates potential dangers and risks. The paper explores how these two distinct orientations to Ulawun’s past and future influence the possibilities of Ulawun’s beneficial and dangerous outcomes. We emphasise how Ulawun’s anticipated future has been articulated into forms of disaster planning involving new modes of action, accountability and world making.     

Review. Reflections on amyloidosis in Papua New Guinea

The amyloidoses comprise a heterogeneous group of diseases in which 1 out of more than 25 human proteins aggregates into characteristic beta-sheet fibrils with some unique properties. Aggregation is nucleation dependent. Among the known amyloid-forming constituents is the prion protein, well known for its ability to transmit misfolding and disease from one individual to another. There is increasing evidence that other amyloid forms also may be transmissible but only if certain prerequisites are fulfilled. One of these forms is systemic AA-amyloidosis in which an acute-phase reactant, serum AA, is over-expressed and, possibly after cleavage, aggregates into amyloid fibrils, causing disease. In a mouse model, this disorder can easily be transmitted from one animal to another both by intravenous and oral routes. Also, synthetic amyloid-like fibrils made from defined small peptides have this property, indicating a prion-like transmission mechanism. Even some fibrils occurring in the environment can transmit AA-amyloidosis in the murine model. AA-amyloidosis is particularly common in certain areas of Papua New Guinea, probably due to the endemicity of malaria and perhaps genetic predisposition. Now, when kuru is disappearing, more interest should be focused on the potentially lethal systemic AA-amyloidosis.     

Injuries caused by garfish in Papua New Guinea.

Garfish, which are found in the Indo-Pacific Ocean areas, have a long, spear-like beak with two marrow jaws and small pointed teeth. They often make sudden leaps while swimming, particularly when attracted by bright lights. In Papua New Guinea people often fish from canoes using a light at night, and serious injuries may be caused by a fish jumping and its beak piercing part of the body. The surface wound may appear deceptively small and innocent, but if the wound is on the chest or abdomen the beak may have penetrated sufficiently deeply to cause internal injuries, and death may result. Patients may have to be admitted to hospital for removal of the beak, which may remain embedded in a limb.     

Alpha-thalassemia in Papua New Guinea

Summary A study of the distribution of -thalassemia in Papua New Guinea (PNG) was carried out by DNA analysis. A total of 664 DNA samples were screened for -thalassemia 2 and -thalassemia 1 caused respectively by either deletion of one or both of the duplicated -globin genes. -Thalassemia 2 was detected in high frequencies in coastal and lowland regions where malaria has been holo- to hyperendemic but in low frequencies in non-malarious highland regions. The highest frequency was observed in the north coast of PNG. The distribution of -thalassemia 2 seems to be in accordance with other conditions such as ovalocytosis and G6PD deficiency which are also prevalent in this population, suggesting that they may interact in protection against malaria. However, it appears to be negatively correlated with -thalassemia and -thalassemia 1, the latter being extremely rare in this population. Analysis of the types and subtypes of the single -globin gene deletion revealed a predominance of the –^4.2 type in general, except in some regions in the south where the –^3.7 type is prevalent. The –^3.7 I subtype is the common form of the –^3.7 deletion in the PNG mainland. The –^3.7 III subtype, previously reported to be unique in Melanesians and Polynesians, was detected in an offshore island of PNG. However, this subtype is very rare in Melanesians from the PNG mainland.