Paper short abstract:

Resource conflicts, originating in political struggles over access to mine benefits, plague Porgera. The paper discusses the nature of conflict in this society, and the mining company’s response in view of its declarations of compliance with international compacts on Corporate Social Responsibility.

Paper long abstract:

A landowner identification exercise carried out among the Ipili people at the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea, over a two year period, uncovered a high level of conflict in the community stemming from intra-community struggles for political recognition, and for protagonists to be included among mine beneficiaries.

A closer analysis shows that episodes of fighting often break out among close relatives such that 'inter-cousin fighting' is a more apt designation. Far from having unfathomable causes, following the 'tribal fighting' narrative of the Port Moresby-based national media, the basis of conflict lies in struggles among spokesmen for rival descent lines to represent themselves and their followers as rightfully among insiders in respect of mining benefits.

The paper discusses the origins of indigenous conflict in Porgera and the implications for indigenous representation of Goodenough's conception of the 'unrestricted cognatic' descent group. This is followed by the mining company's response in the light of its public reporting of compliance with international compacts on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The paper's concluding discussion examines the potential for breakdown in the assumed three-way bond of trust between experts working in a range of subdisciplines centring on anthropology and social development, the multilateral agencies that create the international CSR compacts, and the corporate signatories claiming to be in compliance. The control of professional advice in anthropology will be contrasted with the situation in other human sciences, and in professions like law and engineering.