ABSTRACT
The archetypal Melanesian leader, the ‘big man’ has become one of the most identifiable figures and concepts in anthropology. The big man is typically described as a local village leader who achieves a position of influence through careful work in organising enduring relations of obligation among his followers; in particular those obligations that were realised in major ceremonial exchange and life-cycle transition events. The most influential depiction of the big man probably remains M. Sahlins’ 1963 interpretation. Despite criticisms that Sahlins’ typology exaggerated the difference between Melanesia and Polynesia, elements of his model remained influential but often with different emphases. The contrast established in Sahlins’ model between Melanesia and Polynesia, with the big man and his position within cycles of ceremonial exchange at its heart, was open to criticism from several angles. Some of the most famous instances of the forms of ceremonial exchange occur in the Papua New Guinea highlands.
