Marilyn Strathern - Field Work in Papua New Guinea

Field Work in Papua New Guinea

From her doctoral thesis published in 1972 titled “Women in Between” to her more recent publications, Strathern is constantly challenging the definitions and social constructs of gender “norms”. In her piece “Self-Interest and the Social Good: Some Implications of Hagen Gender Imagery” (1981), Strathern notes that “ender imagery is… a symbolic mechanism whereby “collective” and “personal” interests are made to seem to be of different orders”. As editor of a collection of articles in "Dealing with Equality: Analysing gender relations in Melanesia and beyond", she also brings to the surface the issue of gender “equality” and what it really means, asking if the definitions of the Western world are in fact correct, or if there is still a sense of patriarchal dominance.

Taking this approach when studying in such fields as patriarchal societies in Papua New Guinea has allowed Strathern to push the boundaries of thought on such topics as reproductive technology, intellectual property, and gender in both Melanesia and the United Kingdom.

Strathern has spent much time among the Hagen of Papua New Guinea. From here she has developed one of the main themes occurring across her work, that the world is ontologically multiple. The world is made up of identifiable parts; however, these parts are not separate from one another. She does not address society specifically, but rather looks at socially-constructed multiple realities which exist interdependently with one another.