Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2012-8
Transformations in kinship,land rights and social boundaries among the Wampar in Papua New Guinea and the generative agency of children of interethnic marriages
Among the Wampar in Papua New Guinea, children are active participants in the dynamics of kinship and identity construction. This article explores the transformative capabilities of children of interethnic marriages, particularly those with non-Wampar fathers. It examines children’s notions of belonging and rights through their practices and engagement in the discourses on social boundaries of kinship and ethnicity. Amid changing economic conditions that foster tightening of kinship boundaries and restrictions on land rights, children, who are valued as social capital, shift the balance towards mutuality of rights and benefits. Moreover, they further fluidity in reckoning kinship and the ordering of social relations.
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