Title: Money games : gambling in a Papua New Guinea town /
Authors: Pickles, Anthony J.
Year: 2019
Subjects: Gambling Social aspects Papua New Guinea Goroka.; Ethnology Papua New Guinea Goroka.; Ethnology; Gambling Social aspects; Manners and customs; Goroka (Papua New Guinea) Social life and customs.; Papua New Guinea Goroka
Abstract: "Gambling in Papua New Guinea, despite being completely absent prior to the Colonial era, has come to supersede storytelling as the region's main nighttime activity. Money Games is an ethnographic monograph which reveals the contemporary importance of gambling in urban Papua New Guinea. Rich ethnographic detail is coupled with cross-cultural comparison spanning the globe. This anthropological study of everyday economics in Melanesia thereby intersects with theories of money, value, play, informal economy, social change and leadership"--
Contents: Selected histories -- The pattern changes changes -- The tyranny of denomination -- The fastest money in Goroka -- The big-shots at old slots -- The origin of pooling.