Hard Times on Kairiru Island: Poverty, Development, and Morality in a Papua New Guinea Village

Life in Kragur, a village in Papua New Guinea's Sepik area, has been profoundly affected by capitalism. Since European contact the people of this remote corner of the the Pacific have come to fear that their poverty is the result of their own moral failings. Hard Times on Kairiru Island evokes in vivid detail the difficulties of entering a cash economy for the first time, as well as the personal conflicts and public debates stirred by Kragur people's pursuit of economic change and moral certainty.

• Michael French Smith, Author

  Michael French Smith is a senior research associate with LTG Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that applies the methods of cultural anthropology to health and human services policy and management issues. He is the author of Hard Times on Kairiru Island