1979 Volume 44 Issue 3 Pages 289-308
Since World War II many scholars in the sciences have been interested in the study of conflict. Students of the anthropology of law have also recognized that the study of effective means for understanding law, and many good results have been obtaind through the case-method study of conflict. Although, at present, no concensus has been reached on the theoretical problem of the analytical approach to the study of conflict, Max GLUCKMAN (1973) insisted that one must know not only the narrow situation in which conflict occurs but also its social process, and proposed the extended-case method. Though this method constitutes an improvement over the past, I think that GLUCKMAN does not go far enough. Therefore, I should like to demonstrate the importance of a viewpoint in which a more extensive approach to the anthropological study of conflict is taken. This would be an analytical model of social process constituted by the triad of conflict-status-exchange. My purpose in this paper is to show the effectiveness of the model in an analysis of the tribal societies in the New Guinea Highlands. In the first part of this papar I will introduce P. H. GULLIVER'S theory about the mediator in the process of negotiation, and through it show that the viewpoints of conflict in the recent anthropology of law focus on the process of conflict management and the parties concerned with conflict such as the mediators. But these viewpoints focus only on a narrow situation of conflict itself. Analysis of the above-mentioned theoretical problem should be accompanied by analysis of the actors in an exchange situation. When we analyze the social process from order to conflict as a process of interaction from a "normal" situation to one of conflict, the analysis of the exchange process is an effective tool and accordingly the actors in the exchange should occupy an important position in the analysis. That is to say, though the mediator as the third party in the process of conflict managemenent may promote resolution, on the contrary, the exchange actor as competitor in the exchange process may inevitably bring on conflict or confrontation. As this exchange actor is often the same person as the mediator in many societies, the value of a more extensive approach can be demonstrated which focuses on the so-called intervener in a process of conflict and exchange entailed in the total social process. In the following analysis of conflict in New Guinea, I should like to use the following hypothetical and analytical model. This would include analysis of the social process of conflict and exchange surrounding the traditional leader called the big man, and also include the kinship and production systems which are fundamental aspects of this process. In the latter part of this paper, several aspects of the social processes involved in conflict in New Guinea is made clear by a comparison of the Enga and Hagen societies of the Western Highlands District in Papua New Guinea. In these societies, there were many conflicts among neighboring groups because of the tense relationships between them. Though the big man was not always the leader in battle, he had to intervene as a warrior in order to hold his prestige and status. But, in these areas, the highest prestige awarded a big man was given to the person who could make peace. The success of the exchange ritual was important to the prestige of the big man since this ritual was the arena for exchanging compensation and for coming to a peaceful settlement. We can say that his status was based on his ability to supply pigs, which were the main items of compensation.