Paper short abstract

A review of thirty years of anthropology around the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea.

Paper long abstract

Anthropologists have been investigating the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea for thirty years, but it still unclear what contribution, if any, has been made to the welfare of Indigenous people who live around the mine.

The midpoint of this period coincided with the rise of Corporate Social Responsibility and 'sustainability' concepts through the mining industry generally which might be thought to be, if not bedfellows of, then at least the fellow travellers in respect of anthropological goals and methods.

The paper examines the different approaches to the ethnography of the impact area, what constraints have been placed on the professional pursuit of anthropological inquiries, and the extent to which anthropologist can be useful to Indigenous communities in mining affected areas.