Cheap Meat: Flap Food Nations in the Pacific Islands

225 Pages·2010·17.89 MB·English

by  Deborah Gewertz, Frederick Errington

Cheap Meat
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Cheap Meat
Fl a p Food Nations in
the Pacific Isl a nds
Deborah Gewertz and
Frederick Errington
University of California Press
Berkeley Los Angeles London
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University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, En gland
© 2010 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Gewertz, Deborah B., 1948–.
Cheap meat : fl ap food nations in the pacifi c islands / Deborah
Gewertz and Frederick Errington.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978–0- 520–26092–4 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978–0- 520–26093–1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Nutritional anthropology— Pacifi c Islands. 2. Lamb meat
industry— Pacifi c Islands. 3. Mutton industry— Pacifi c Islands.
4. Animal gut industries— Pacifi c Islands. 5. Food habits— Pacifi c
Islands. 6. Pacifi c Islands— Foreign economic relations— Australia.
7. Pacifi c Islands— Foreign economic relations— New Zealand.
I. Errington, Frederick Karl. II. Title.
GN635.P27G49 2010
394.1'20996.5—dc22 2009020580
Manufactured in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100% post consumer
waste, recycled, de- inked fi ber. FSC recycled certifi ed and pro cessed
chlorine free. It is acid free, Ecologo certifi ed, and manufactured by
BioGas energy.
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Ac know ledg ments ix
introduction What’s Not on Our Plates 1
1. Thinking about Meat 12
2. Making Flaps 29
3. Trading Meat 53
4. Papua New Guinea’s Flaps 72
5. Smiles and Shrugs, Worried Eyes and Sighs 96
6. Pacifi c Island Flaps 117
Conclusion One Supersize Does Not Fit All: Flap Versus Mac 148
Notes 167
References 193
Index 209
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Illustrations
1. Lamb cuts 2
2. The Pacifi c islands of most importance for our project 9
3. Flaps, just out of the half- carton 49
4. Map of relevant places in Papua New Guinea 76
5. Joseph and Deborah at Madang’s artifact market 82
6. Waiting to buy fl aps at a store in Goroka 92
7. Selling fl ap pieces at a market in Goroka 93
8. Cooked fl aps for sale at a snack bar in Madang 94
9. Fijian tele vi sion message 125
10. Lamb shoulder pieces, purchased in Fiji 128
11. Lamb neck pieces, purchased in Fiji 129
12. Corned mutton, canned and purchased in Fiji 130
13. An insert found in Fiji’s 2004 phone book (dated 1988) 131
14. A billboard along Suva’s sea wall 132
15. Cartoon from the New Yorker 155
vii
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Ac know ledg ments
Thanking people for helping us with a multisited project involving a
controversial topic is tricky. We spoke to many people in New Zealand,
Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji. And, if complete, the list might
include some who would not wish to be mentioned. What to do? We
have decided to limit the list to those who provided us with sociability
as well as succor during our research— and to those we are relatively
sure would not mind being acknowledged. We hope we do not offend
in either direction of mentioning or not mentioning. In regard to all, we
want to emphasize how much we learned. We have tried to listen care-
fully, and we have tried to write fairly. We do, of course, take full respon-
sibility for what we have written.
We send our special gratitude to: Karen Brison, Mark Busse, Fiona
Carruthers, Sneh Chand, Ann Chowning, Don Claasen, Ken Cokana-
siga, Bob DeBour were, Graeme Cook, Jope Davetanivalu, David Ellis,
Ross Finlayson, Andy Fox, Hamish and Stratton Giblin, Claudia Gross,
Tim Harrison, Philip Harvey, Trevor Hattersley, Judith Huntsman, Joseph
ix