Land and marine tenure, ownership and new forms of entitlement on Lihir: changing notions of property in the context of a goldmining project

We describe and analyze changes in ideas of land and marine tenure and resource rights in the Lihir group of islands in Papua New Guinea as they have developed over a ten-year period. The paper examines some issues that have become contentious since goldmining mine began in the 1980s, analyzing the underlying principles of tenure and changing ideas of entitlement that inform them. Beginning with a description of the basic representation of tenure given to the anthropologists who worked there before mining began, we shall then examine the ways that clan ownership and communal rights over sacred sites have been influenced by notions of land having monetary value. We also explain some ways that rights of transmission and inheritance, claims for compensation, benefits from leasing, and transactions and emergent ideas of individual ownership have developed in the context of the mining project. In particular we look at disputes and tensions that have arisen in the context of a dramatic increase in population, changes in housing, transport and land use, and the monetization of the economy.

Human Organization

Human Organization

66

1938-3525

N/A

1

11