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Teacher’s notes

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The clip shows a village meeting of Ganiga people and members of a visiting clan discussing a bride price of pigs rather than of money. Male Ganiga speakers present the lower-than-expected bride price and say they cannot pay with money. The girl’s representatives say that they do not often see money, and so pigs are acceptable. The girl is asked to clearly indicate her wishes regarding the bride price and the boy. She says she wants to stay with the Ganiga. The footage includes women and children and features large tethered pigs very prominently. Subtitles are included.

Educational value points

• The bride price negotiations in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) Highlands reveal the importance of engaging in the affairs of the clan rather than earning cash income. The men’s role in public speaking and negotiating takes time and skill, and involvement in meetings is a cultural obligation, part of the work of the Ganiga. Such demanding social interaction means that few Ganiga work in the cash economy and so they have ‘no money’.

• The Ganiga are negotiating the bride price for a girl from another clan and the clip indicates that marriage is clan business. The choice of a marriage partner is rarely left to the individual. Women plant gardens and tend pigs, and so a hardworking wife is a valuable asset, but marriage is also important in establishing good alliances with other clans for exchange and war. A large bride price to the bride’s family will compensate them for their loss and raise their status.

• The negotiation of the bride price gives an example of the important male role of public speaking in PNG Highlander society. The discussion is robust and humorous with comments made about the large amount of talking being out of proportion to the price being offered. Speakers from both clans indicate they have listened by referring to the words of earlier speakers. The formal speeches will continue until an agreement is reached.

• The bride is shown in this clip as being able to decide whether the marriage negotiations will proceed. While the men are engaged in speeches the girl sits next to her family. She looks down shyly but when she is urged to state her wishes, she states them decisively. Such negotiations take place after time for meeting and courtship and it is usual for the girl to leave her home to go to the home of her prospective husband before the negotiations begin.

• The clip, from Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson’s 1988 film Joe Leahy’s Neighbours, illustrates the continuing traditional life of the Ganiga people who live around Joe Leahy’s coffee plantation in the PNG Highlands. The film explores issues of continuity and change, referring to bride prices in PNG involving cash. The filmmakers spent 18 months living in the Highlands and filming regularly. The subsequent film is an observational-style documentary.

• In this clip pigs are referred to as items of currency and often feature in the foreground of the footage. Pigs in the Highlands of PNG are very valuable. They are raised and cared for almost as part of the family and regarded as a measure of wealth. Pigs are traded, used to pay compensation for offences and given as gifts to establish and consolidate relationships. They are slaughtered and cooked in ground ovens for large gatherings on special occasions.