This dissertation research award will support a graduate student in anthropology in a field study of the role of secrecy and knowledge in a highland group in Papua New Guinea. Most previous studies have examined reciprocal exchanges as the basis of social life in this sort of group; this research looks at the refusal to exchange, by keeping secret valuable practical knowledge, to see how that constrains social relations. Methods include participant observation and structured interviewing. This research is important because it modifies the position that shared knowledge is the basis of social life in small societies. In fact the possession of secret knowledge is an important fact in every social system, and this project will shed light on how one small-scale society uses secrecy to establish and maintain social relations. The case study will be valuable as a comparison to small-group studies of knowledge exchange in group process.
