Dangerous woods and perilous pearl shells - The fabricated politics of a longhouse in Pangia, Papua New Guinea

This article approaches the analysis of ambivalence in exchange relations b etween groups in the Pangia area of the Southern Highlands Province in Papu a New Guinea from an unusual angle: the structure and materials of a ceremo nial longhouse constructed to house participants in a gift-giving occasion. The sponsor of the feast declared that it was to mark peace and alliance w ith neighbors, but one of the recipients noted that the types of wood used in the building themselves carried threatening and competitive messages enc oded non-verbally. Gifts of pearl shells and pork were similarly interprete d as double-sided: both to repair friendships and to declare enmities. The recipients themselves risked, from their point of view, death in accepting these perilous gifts from a longhouse consisting of 'dangerous woods'. The case study illustrates the possible disjuncture of interpretations of mater ial acts and structures by differently positioned persons in the social are na.