ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author considers two ways in which Melanesians assert power in managing interactions with others. He also considers examples of symbolic exchange from his own fieldwork. The author then discusses the impact of foreign mining and the expansion of Western-style education on communities in the hinterland. Analogous sorts of transformations occur with respect to the names of persons throughout Melanesia. Among the Maisin of Collingwood Bay, for instance, the aftermath of Second World War led to a new set of names being adopted as a result of peoples’ positive perception of US servicemen stationed in the area. As John Barker observes, one man in a nearby village was named America by his father. The people directly affected by the Tolukuma Gold Mine are Fuyuge speakers residing in the Auga Valley. Their villages lie in the Wharton Ranges of the Papuan highlands about 100 km north-west of Port Moresby, the national capital.
