Circulations

In Circulations, Courtney Handman examines the surprising continuities in modernist communication discourses that shaped both colonial and decolonial projects in Papua New Guinea. Often described as a place with too many mountains and too many languages to be modern, Papua New Guinea was seen as a space of circulatory primitivity—where people, things, and talk could not move. Colonial missionaries and administrators, and even anticolonial delegations to the United Nations that spearheaded demands for Papua New Guinea’s independence in the 1950s, argued that this circulatory primitivity would only be overcome through the management of communications infrastructures, bureaucratic information flows, and the introduction of English. Innovatively bringing together analyses of communications infrastructures such as radios, airplanes, telepathy, bureaucracy, and lingua francas, Circulations argues for the critical role of communicative networks and communicative imaginaries in political processes of colonialism and decolonization worldwide.

“An intellectually exhilarating book with a wry sense of humor.” — ILANA GERSHON, Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Anthropology, Rice University

“Handman’s breadth of imagination and depth of insight make for fascinating reading.” — WEBB KEANE, author of Christian Moderns: Freedom and Fetish in the Mission Encounter

“This is an extremely thoughtful—and thought-provoking—book.” — BAMBI SCHIEFFELIN, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, New York University

“A must-read for scholars of culture, language, empire, and decoloniality.” — MATT TOMLINSON, author of God Is Samoan: Dialogues between Culture and Theology in the Pacific

COURTNEY HANDMAN is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Critical Christianity: Translation and Denominational Conflict in Papua New Guinea.