Local Solutions to the High Level of Violence against Women Accused of Sorcery and Witchcraft in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Abstract

The belief in sorcery and witchcraft in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is widely spread and has an important role in most of the spheres of public and private life. Most of the population of PNG does not accept natural causes as an explanation of illness or death. The belief that sorcerers and witches have deliberately used their supernatural powers in order to harm other people is a common conviction and the relatives of the victims adopt retaliation measures against the alleged witches, such as murder, torture, destruction of their property or exile. This kind of violence causes hundreds of deaths every year. The following research does not aim to make an account or analysis of this kind of violence, as I believe this aspect has been already presented enough and it is not constructive in itself. This investigation focuses on exploring the initiatives undertaken by local activists to overcome the high level of violence, especially targeting women, arising from witchcraft and sorcery-related accusations in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. With that objective, I carried out a feminist ethnography, mainly supported by the theories of Postcolonialism, Postcolonial Feminism, Politics of Location, Situated Knowledges and Feminist Standpoint, putting them into dialogue with previous research on sorcery and witchcraft in Papua New Guinea and with the first-hand testimonies of more than 50 field interviews that I conducted myself. With this research, I aim to making visible a terrible form of gender-based violence against women; highlight the work of those local women and men that are taking a stand against sorcery and witchcraft accusations in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea; and bring a more constructive and less ethnocentric view to the current academic and media discourse. In this regard, the current thesis compiles and assesses these local initiatives, trying to fill a gap in a recently discovered field of research.