Culture Change and Ex-Change

<ul> <li> Biography&Relationship: I was born in PNG in 1972 lived there until I was 5 and thus have a very personal relationship to people and place. It is my home. Although not old-childhood friends of mine Bena people adopted me more than 23 years ago into their community. The long-term relationship with my informants/relatives gives me insights into cultural realms that remain closed to many anthropologists including for example that of magical practices and warfare</li> <li> Long-term-study: my first research in Bena was in 1997. Since then numerous research periods and projects followed in the area covering a timespan of over 20 years. This has allowed me not only to gather a huge body of ethnographic data (including filmed footage) but also to follow people’s life journeys and witness cultural and social changes on micro- (personal) and macro (communal) levels</li> <li> Reciprocity and Documentation of Cultural Heritage: My research is collaborative. My Bena interlocutors have greatest interest in having me as an anthropologist and family member documenting their culture for future generations. They encouraged my research and became the directors of this book’s story. This again led to a new research project currently undertaken on the documentation of Bena Bena language and the relation between linguistic and cultural concepts.</li></ul>