Changing relations of production in the creation of the Ok Tedi Mining enclave in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

The interplay of mining, miners and indigenous peoples increasingly threatens the interdependence of cultural and biological diversity in Papua New Guinea. The mode of production concept provides anthropology with a useful theoretical tool for examining the survival of communities based on subsistence and simple reproduction. Mining characteristically transforms the cultural appropriation of nature and social relations of production among indigenous peoples. The survival of a community and their environment in the face of a mining project is conditioned by its production logic combined with relevant cultural and ecological particularities. The analytical significance of the mode of production concept is illustrated with a case study of Wopkaimin and their changing relations of production during the creation of the Ok Tedi mining project in the 1980’s