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Advocates and ombudsmen at Papua New Guinea's Mines: A review essay . Alex Golub ( 2014 ). Leviathans at the Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous and Corporate Actors in Papua New Guinea. Durham and London : Duke University Press , 247 pp., USD$23.95, pbk, ISBN: 978‐0‐8223‐5508‐3 . Stuart Kirsch ( 2014 ) Mining Capitalism: The Relationship between Corporations and their Critics. California : University of California Press , 314 pp., USD$29.95, pbk, ISBN: 978‐0‐520‐28171‐4 .

Advocates and ombudsmen at Papua New Guinea's Mines: A review essay . Alex Golub ( 2014 ).... Anthropologists Stuart Kirsch and Alex Golub both research mining and indigenous peoples in Papua New Guinea. Their recent ethnographies, Mining Capitalism and Leviathans at the Gold Mine , draw attention to powerful mining corporations that influence indigenous communities, and ultimately reach similar conclusions on the negative social impacts of mining. Yet both authors come from radically different ethical positions. While Kirsch champions his role as a political advocate for the Yonggom people against the Ok Tedi mine, Golub resembles more of an honest broker or ‘social ombudsman’ between the Ipili people and the Porgera gold mine. In different ways, each approach stimulates policy debate over improving mining industry practices, and the discipline of anthropology has no natural position to adopt. Their roles as advocates and ombudsmen must be considered within the historical contexts of their research. Unlike his previous book's focus on indigenous modes of analysis or ‘Reverse Anthropology’ (2006), Stuart Kirsch 's Mining Capitalism takes an unapologetically adversarial view towards corporations. Described as ‘one of the most powerful institutions of our time’ (2014: 1), corporations are responsible for a range of environmental disasters and social ills. Kirsch argues that the dialectical relationship between corporations and their critics http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asia Pacific Viewpoint Wiley

Advocates and ombudsmen at Papua New Guinea's Mines: A review essay . Alex Golub ( 2014 ). Leviathans at the Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous and Corporate Actors in Papua New Guinea. Durham and London : Duke University Press , 247 pp., USD$23.95, pbk, ISBN: 978‐0‐8223‐5508‐3 . Stuart Kirsch ( 2014 ) Mining Capitalism: The Relationship between Corporations and their Critics. California : University of California Press , 314 pp., USD$29.95, pbk, ISBN: 978‐0‐520‐28171‐4 .

Gessler, Shaun
Asia Pacific Viewpoint , Volume 56 (2) – Aug 1, 2015
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References (4)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Victoria University of Wellington and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd
ISSN
1360-7456
eISSN
1467-8373
DOI
10.1111/apv.12096
Publisher site
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Abstract

Anthropologists Stuart Kirsch and Alex Golub both research mining and indigenous peoples in Papua New Guinea. Their recent ethnographies, Mining Capitalism and Leviathans at the Gold Mine , draw attention to powerful mining corporations that influence indigenous communities, and ultimately reach similar conclusions on the negative social impacts of mining. Yet both authors come from radically different ethical positions. While Kirsch champions his role as a political advocate for the Yonggom people against the Ok Tedi mine, Golub resembles more of an honest broker or ‘social ombudsman’ between the Ipili people and the Porgera gold mine. In different ways, each approach stimulates policy debate over improving mining industry practices, and the discipline of anthropology has no natural position to adopt. Their roles as advocates and ombudsmen must be considered within the historical contexts of their research. Unlike his previous book's focus on indigenous modes of analysis or ‘Reverse Anthropology’ (2006), Stuart Kirsch 's Mining Capitalism takes an unapologetically adversarial view towards corporations. Described as ‘one of the most powerful institutions of our time’ (2014: 1), corporations are responsible for a range of environmental disasters and social ills. Kirsch argues that the dialectical relationship between corporations and their critics

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Asia Pacific Viewpoint – Wiley

Published: Aug 1, 2015

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