The pre-colonial economies of the Western Pacific are famous for their emphasis on reciprocity. Gambling is axiomatically not reciprocal; it stipulates that winners don’t owe a debt to losers, and gambling was completely absent from the region before European contact. However, once introduced, gambling games were both enthusiastically adopted and dramatically transformed to reflect the thoughts of Islanders experiencing intense upheaval.
This talk investigates the rising tide of gambling through a combination of source materials. I track gambling in Papua New Guinea in four decades (1931-1971) during which it went from a practice peculiar to Islanders who were in regular contact with Europeans to a staple of village life and a recognisably Papua New Guinean activity with a common set of rules. During the same period gambling also transformed from an all-male, high prestige activity to one of the few transactions that could be carried out freely across genders. Through an exploration of this not-so-unique phenomenon, the talk interrogates how economic transformation is perceived and repurposed by people on the capitalist periphery.
This event is part of WOLFSON EXPLORES | Transformation |
