“Just another trader? An archaeological perspective on European barter with Admiralty Islandsers, Papua New Guinea”

Citation: Robin Torrence (2000) “Just another trader? An archaeological perspective on European barter with Admiralty Islandsers, Papua New Guinea”. The Archaeology of Difference: negotiating cross-cultural engagements in Oceania (RSS)
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Summary

The author examined the material culture found from Papua New Guinea in the period of European contact and tried to figure out the nature of trading relations between indigenous groups and outsiders. Instead of the model that the trade good was imposed by a dominant group, the author stated that the goods were negotiated by both parties through bartering. When dealing with the European goods, previous studies often focus on consumption or emphasize power relations rather than negotiation. Unlike such researches, the author focused on production and considered the active behavior of the indigenous people who made the goods for barter. In order to test the hypothesis, he analyzed the changes in the efficiency of spears and daggers which served as trading goods from 1860 to 1980 in Admiralty Islands. The efficiency was measured in terms of the degree of simplification, standardization, and craftsmanship of spears and daggers. If the makers maintained their own conception of value, then there will be little change in efficiency through time. On the contrary, if makers were dominated by European traders who demanded more elaborate items, then the levels of efficiency will be low. If barter was negotiated, then the differences in efficiency will be independent of the demands of European consumers. The result proves the third prediction and shows that the spears and daggers production was prior to the arrival of Europeans exchange and the Europeans were just other traders who under established principles of barter.