What labour engenders: women and men, time and work in the New Guinea highlands

Abstract

Debates over equality in New Guinea have raged for years. While people may subscribe to egalitarian values, this seems hollow to some observers in the context of relations between women and men, notably the sexual division of labour. Some even talk of men exploiting the labour of women. This paper considers the validity of these claims in the Was valley of the Southern Highlands Province, using data collected in a time-budget survey conducted to document and assess differences between women’s and men’s activities. It also reviews ideas of time expended undertaking any activity, and the relevance of notions of work and labour to people’s daily routines. It questions the propriety of introducing the capitalism’s preoccupation with labour. Differences in the activities of women and men far from evidencing relations of inequality are significant for such stateless political orders in eschewing hierarchical arrangements, where no one exercises control over resources or capital needed by others to secure livelihoods.