The transformation of use-rights: A comparison of two Papua New Guinean societies

Use and ownership of land and resources in two related societies of lowland Papua New Guinea are shown to covary with residence, gender marriage, Kins hip, and local understandings of rights that are accorded by either convent ions of practice or conventions of inheritance. We argue that the articulat ion of these material and social relations is predicated on the potential f or a lack of congruence between discourse and behavior. Differences between the societies, and changes observed in one of them, inform a model of the transformation of use-rights in nonhierarchical and communally based system s. Under that model, an ideal of free access gives way to an ideal of restr aint, an expectation that permission will be sought gives way to a requirem ent that an invitation be offered and an understanding that women are excha nged in marriage gives way to an understanding that it is both women and th eir rights to use land and resources that are exchanged.