This book is the first systematic study of the urban Papuan and analyses, among other things, the family, household budgets, the proliferation of ceremonial and the re-birth of sorcery. The study can be compared, from the point of view of methods and research problems, with the increasing number of accounts of the urbanization of traditional societies, particularly in Africa. Hanuabada is not, however, 'de-tribalized' and it has maintained its boundaries intact against overwhelming immigration. First published in 1957.

Papua New Guinea's village court system was introduced in 1974, partly in an effort to overcome the legal, geographical, and social distance between village societies and the country's formal courts. There are now more than 1100 village courts all over PNG, hearing thousands of cases each week. This anthropological study is grounded in ethnographic research on three different village courts and the communities they serve. It also explores the colonial historical background to the establishment of the village court system, and the local and global processes influencing the efforts of village courts to deal with everyday disputes among grassroots Melanesians.

This book deals with the fascinating phenomena of the practice of the "Cargo Cult" in the Madang district of New Guinea.