Counting Coconuts: Patrol Reports from the Trobriand Islands, Part I: 1907-1934

Abstract

The Trobriand Islands were governed by Australia from 1904 to 1975, as a part of the Australian Territory of Papua, in what is now Papua New Guinea. Throughout this period, government patrols were the main tool for local administration. This study is an exercise in historical anthropology, providing an analytical review of the surviving patrol reports, station journals and other government documents relating to the administration of the Trobriands from 1907 through 1934. The methodology used was archival research, mainly focused on the corpus of government documents and digital texts housed in the Digital Ethnography Project (DEPTH), Anthropology Department, CSU, Sacramento. After a brief introduction to the Trobriand Islands, people and history, with a primer on relevant colonial theory, the study charts the trajectory of the colonial experience on the islands, with sections devoted to general history, health, economic development and anthropology. This investigation also informs, and is informed by, a wider view of colonialism around the world.