Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

of missionisation (Bridges 1985: 80-81). Polygyny - another early target of the
missionaries (Bridges 1985: 67-68) - has long since been abandoned, and is one
custom of the 'old-time people' which nowadays appears to be a source of some
amusement to their descendants. Post-marital residence is cognatic and appears to
be determined mostly by social factors. A hamlet may thus be composed of any
combination of members of an extended family; geographically each tends to be
located on a single hill, and hamlets are thus distributed largely according to the
availability of suitable sites.
The village functions as a corporate group mostly with respect to infrastructure
and local politics. Village councils and senior positions thereon, are appointed via
public elections in which all adult members of the village are eligible to stand or
nominate others for office, and to vote. The council has responsibilities in
administration, representation of villagers at the regional and national levels, and,
when called upon, resolution of conflicts and enforcement of social norms.
Infrastructure is shared in that all villagers use the same school, clinic, market, playing
field and — for most individuals — church. The council plays a role in this, via its
organisation of village work, a voluntary system in which individuals give one day's
free labour per week to the maintenance of the village compound and other
communal facilities.
The village also functions as a corporate entity with respect to land use, in that
reservation land is held under a communal title vested in the council. However, as the
next chapter will clarify, the functional groups involved in resource appropriation are
far smaller, comprising groups of individuals regularly making use of the same area of
land. Actual decisions concerning land use are occasionally made on this level, but
more commonly by the smaller groupings in individual hunting parties or at the level
of the individual family or household head.
Villages are generally equipped with a basic infrastructure. In the case of
Maruranau, this is mostly located within the village compound, and consists of the
primary school, nursery school, a home economics centre associated with the primary
school, village health centre, village rest house, library, council office, the village bond
where council property such as agricultural tools is stored, village market and a
playing field. Adjacent is the Roman Catholic church, which has attached a house to
provide accommodation for visiting priests, and a sewing centre that is under
construction. Most of the above was built by the villagers, large-scale projects such
as the school with the support of donor agencies to provide funds for materials and
labour, much of the rest by village work. One extended family follows the Christian