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Paper short abstract:

As the site where the Tokarara Village Court hears local disputes and where the banned betelnut is openly traded the Tokarara Market presents multiple ways to think about morality.

Paper long abstract:

This paper presents findings from several months of ethnographic research at the Tokarara Village Court. The focus of the research has been on the Village Court, however given that the Village Court is situated at the Tokarara Market various issues relating to morality are presented. The market provides a specific space where issues of moral concern are raised in a very public manner. Considering that matters of sexual indiscretion is one of the top two reasons why people access the Tokarara Village Court, the Tokarara market becomes a lively hub of community conversation on a Monday morning and on other days when mediation is taking place.

In addition to housing the local Village Court and community mediation processes, the Tokarara market hosts vendors who publicly sell the prohibited betelnut (buai). The sale of buai adds another dimension to ideas of morality as buai sellers and their customers openly disregard municipal authority by continuing to sell and buy buai. This disregard for the recently introduced law has led to frequent, often violent raids and clashes between police and buai sellers. To this end, this paper will examine the moral dimensions of the Village Court, the buai ban and police brutality in the context of the Tokarara market.