From fertility rituals to mining companies: eco-cultural issues and land rights in Oksapmin
Abstracts
This paper describes the Oksapmin representations of land ownership related to the frame of the water use permit payment process, engaged by Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) as a consequence of the ecological impact of the mine operations on the Lagaip-Strickland basin. Even if the Oksapmin society has been fully evangelized during the last two generations, the landowners have recently stressed the pre-contact exegesis in the claims against that foreign mining company. In this essay the author formulates the hypothesis that the claims to the former animist beliefs may be a social strategy to manage land ownership. This strategy provokes, on the side of private companies, a monetary compensation for the «eco-cultural» impact of mining operations. The land issues focus today on the rediscovery of tradition in order to integrate it to modernity. Tradition then acquires a new original rule in contemporary society. The water spirits and the river sacred sites are re-interpreted and perceived as the guardians of land rights, held by mythical actors at the beginning of time.
References
Bibliographical reference
Lorenzo Brutti, “From fertility rituals to mining companies: eco-cultural issues and land rights in Oksapmin”, Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 125 | 2007, 249-255.
Electronic reference
Lorenzo Brutti, “From fertility rituals to mining companies: eco-cultural issues and land rights in Oksapmin”, Journal de la Société des Océanistes [Online], 125 | Année 2007-2, Online since 01 December 2010, connection on 29 March 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/jso/979; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/jso.979
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