The Wantok System

THE WORLD’S SECOND-LARGEST ISLAND after Greenland is threaded with twisting rivers, rainforests, and swamps. Steep peaks and grassy highlands cross the center. For forty thousand years there were no centralized states. People lived by planting taro, banana, sago, and yam, with some hunting and gathering. No colonialism, and not much world-system, until about the last century. … Read more

Concept: Wantok System

Details The wantok system or wantokism is derived from the Solomons Pijin term for ‘one talk’, meaning from the same language, and implies giving preference to kin in the expectation of a series of reciprocal obligations being fulfilled. The exact origin of the term is unknown, although wantok may date back to the formative period of Pijin English on trading and … Read more