Projects / Programmes
Governance in the Pacific: A Sepik Pentecostal Movement as a Pacific Form of Grassroots Democracy, Papua New Guinea
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 6.03.00 |
Humanities |
Anthropology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S220 |
Social sciences |
Cultural anthropology, ethnology |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.04 |
Social Sciences |
Sociology |
Governance, Christianity, Law, Pentecostal movement, Papua New Guinea
Researchers (1)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
39776 |
PhD Tomi Bartole |
Anthropology |
Head |
2018 - 2020 |
38 |
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Since the late 80s the UN, WB and IMF have all framed the promotion of democracy,
economic justice and sustainable development through the all-encompassing idea and
practice of governance. Governance contains within itself both the causes of and the
solutions to these challenges, referred to as bad and good governance respectively. In the
Pacific region, the new language of governance has gained purchase through the foreign
policies of non-Pacific Island states, which aim at modernizing and developing Pacific
states. Due to concerns regarding their governmental effectiveness Pacific states have been
glossed “weak states” while three main causes for bad governance have been identified: a
perceived lack of grassroots democracy, the processes of domestication of the state by
indigenous forces, and the failure to fill a “leadership deficit”. The proposed research will
anthropologically interrogate the triad of propositions for explaining bad governance in the
Pacific while engaging in current anthropological debates.
The proposed research will conduct a multi-sited ethnographic study of the Pentecostal
movement called the Angel Michael Ministry in Papua New Guinea. The six existing
Ministries in the villages of Meska, Yamandim, Yimas, Warlamas, Imboin and Awim have
had and continue to have a significant impact on governance on many, including the
national, levels. In 2014 the Ministry performed healing rituals at the Parliament of Papua
New Guinea to chase away evil spirits causing personal and institutional corruption which
was disturbing state functionality. Not incidentally, the ritual coincided with a crisis of the
Parliament’s legitimacy.
The research draws research topics such as governance and grassroots democracy from
political anthropology and political sciences while ethnographic methods of inquiry are
employed to seek out innovative, constructive and feasible solutions. The project, however,
makes use of this convergence to approach critical and current debates voiced in the
Anthropology of Christianity, Governance and Law. What makes Christianity and
Governance converge is the fact that prior to the wider intellectual developments brought
about by Anthropology of Christianity, anthropologists tended to think about Melanesian
Christianity in similar terms governance is thought.
The research will focus on three aspects of the gifts (forms of power, knowledge and
accountability) that are conferred by the Angel Michael to the peoples: Firstly, the gifts
conferred by the Angel Michael structure and organise each Ministry by way of
granting specific roles to each member. Gifting thus represents a decisive analytical
situation to study at the same time the ontogeny of social organization and new forms of
leadership. This focus allows to question the thesis about the break with the past voiced by
anthropology of Christianity and the idea of theocratic state-building.
Secondly, the study of gifts is pivotal in the articulation of a critique of the existing models
of knowledge transmission, because this can reveal how the effects of the conferred gifts
(power, knowledge and accountability) are grounded in decision making, which is
determined at once by the gift, behaviour and conduct and thus allow to engage the
analytics of law and will in Christianity and governance as well as to formulate the
possibilities of a post-relational turn.
Thirdly, gifting is decisive in answering the central question that governance necessarily
evinces, i.e. “why people follow rules”, by way of foregrounding processes of decision
making in order to show how people become who they are, which allows to question the
‘necessary’ coupling of governance and law as well as the analytical criminalisation of
change and transformation.
Significance for science
The research will solve the logical and methodological deadlock produced by the
assumed lack of grassroots democracy as one of the causes for bad governance in the
Pacific.
The fact that Melanesian Christianity was until recently thought in a similar way that
governance is - in terms of acceptance or resistance, and as a movement from tradition to
modernity, allows to establish a convergence between them that has not received
yet adequate attention. The above mentioned cause for bad governance, and two others,
will therefore be interrogated by way of focusing on three aspects of gifts (a form of
power, knowledge and responsibility) that people receive withing their Pentecostal
movement. While the Anthropology of Christianity presupposes the existence of a break
with the past, the present research will show that this actually guides researchers to the
domain of tradition, since people’s aspirations are longstanding.
The research will make a strong point that Pentecostal movements have a significant
impact on national governance, that Christianity should not be separated from tradition and
governance, and that Christianity does not necessarily lead to theocratic state-building. In
anthropology, Christian conversions were often presented through dualistic models, which
at the same time called into question relational analytics. This research will point to
unexpected conceptualizations of the person in Melanesia, which instead of setting
relational analytics in contrast to values of individualism, base relational analytics in
indigenous, not Western, ‘individual’ forms.
Governance, and Christianity, necessarily evinces the question why people follow the
rules? Historically, anthropology has always set governance and law together, where one
described the other. The research proposes instead an anthropology of governance without
law that values legal questions, but seeks nonlegal answers, setting the processes of
Pentecostal conversion to the forefront. When people are concerned with rules and laws,
they do so in order to test their own powers, or in other words, people check the
effectiveness of their own transformations. The advantage of this approach rests in that
transformations are no longer conceived as violations or even criminal offenses (against
tradition and in general). Since the fetishisation of law has expanded to the notions of good
governance and economic development, good governance can only result from effective
police activity or security.
Significance for the country
The research will solve the logical and methodological deadlock produced by the
assumed lack of grassroots democracy as one of the causes for bad governance in the
Pacific.
The fact that Melanesian Christianity was until recently thought in a similar way that
governance is - in terms of acceptance or resistance, and as a movement from tradition to
modernity, allows to establish a convergence between them that has not received
yet adequate attention. The above mentioned cause for bad governance, and two others,
will therefore be interrogated by way of focusing on three aspects of gifts (a form of
power, knowledge and responsibility) that people receive withing their Pentecostal
movement. While the Anthropology of Christianity presupposes the existence of a break
with the past, the present research will show that this actually guides researchers to the
domain of tradition, since people’s aspirations are longstanding.
The research will make a strong point that Pentecostal movements have a significant
impact on national governance, that Christianity should not be separated from tradition and
governance, and that Christianity does not necessarily lead to theocratic state-building. In
anthropology, Christian conversions were often presented through dualistic models, which
at the same time called into question relational analytics. This research will point to
unexpected conceptualizations of the person in Melanesia, which instead of setting
relational analytics in contrast to values of individualism, base relational analytics in
indigenous, not Western, ‘individual’ forms.
Governance, and Christianity, necessarily evinces the question why people follow the
rules? Historically, anthropology has always set governance and law together, where one
described the other. The research proposes instead an anthropology of governance without
law that values legal questions, but seeks nonlegal answers, setting the processes of
Pentecostal conversion to the forefront. When people are concerned with rules and laws,
they do so in order to test their own powers, or in other words, people check the
effectiveness of their own transformations. The advantage of this approach rests in that
transformations are no longer conceived as violations or even criminal offenses (against
tradition and in general). Since the fetishisation of law has expanded to the notions of good
governance and economic development, good governance can only result from effective
police activity or security.
Most important scientific results
Final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Final report
