Mark S. Mosko, BA (Calif), MA, PhD (Minnesota)

Professor, Anthropology, School of Culture, History & Language

Email: mark.mosko@anu.edu.au

Biographical statement

I am continuing research of the dynamics of personhood, agency and exchange in North Mekeo (PNG) sociality and history including processes of commodification, Christian conversion, and changing patterns of chiefly leadership. In 2006 I launched a second major research programme in the Trobriands based at Omarakana – the home of the Paramount Chief and the site of Malinowski's pioneering fieldwork – reexamining key dimensions of sociality (ritual, chieftainship, agency, exchange, Christianity, change). Over 2009-2012, I shall be conducting twelve additional months of Omarakana fieldwork and nine months of Trobriands archival research at LSE and the Digital Ethnographic Project, CSU Sacramento.

Research Interests

Social anthropology; symbolism; kinship; cultural change; leadership; personhood; agency; gift exchange theory; religion; Christianity; chaos theory; Melanesia/Pacific.

Key Publications

• The making of chiefs: Hereditary succession, personal agency and exchange in North Mekeo chiefdoms’. In The scope of anthropology., L. Dousset and S. Tcherkézoff (eds), 155-186. New York, Berghahn Books, 2012.
• Deep wholes: Fractal holography and human agency in the Trobriands’. In: Experiments in holism: Theory and practice in anthropology. T. Otto and N. Bubandt (eds), 172-198. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
• Partible penitents: Dividual personhood and Christian practice in Melanesia and the West’. Curl Prize Essay 2008, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (n.s.) 16: 215-240, 2010.
• Black powder, white magic: European armaments and sorcery in early Mekeo-Roro encounters. In: Oceanic encounters: Exchange, desire, violence, M. Jolly, S. Tcherkézoff and D. Tryon (eds), 259-294. Canberra, Australian National University E-Press, 2009.
• 2009 'The Fractal Yam: Botanical Imagery and Human Agency in the Trobriands'. JRAI (n.s.) 15:679-700.
• 2005 (with F. Damon, co-editor). On the Order of Chaos: Social Anthropology and the Science of Chaos. Berghahn.
• 1994 (with M. Jolly, co-editor). Transformations of Hierarchy: Structure, History and Horizon in the Austronesian World. History and Anthropology (special edition) 7 (1-4).
• 1985. Quadripartite Structures: Categories, Relations and Homologies in Bush Mekeo Culture. Cambridge UP.

Career Highlights

Ethnographic research: North Mekeo (4 years on 11 fieldtrips 1974-2009), Roro (3 months 2005-2006); Trobriands (17 months 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). Major research grants: NIGMS (1970-1978), NIH (1993-1994), Wenner-Gren (1994-1995, 2005-2007, 2009-2012), New Zealand Royal Society/Marsden Fund (1999-2004), Australian Research Council/Discovery (2009-2012) ; Elected Fellow, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (2004); Royal Anthropological Institute 2008 Curl Prize for Best Essay.