Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
My PhD, completed in 2011, examined transformations in the kinship and customary authority systems amongst Halia-speakers in Buka, Autonomous Region of Bougainville, as these traditions have become enmeshed with the market economy and the state. An important part of this research is the characterisation of Melanesian states as they appear from a village perspective, and of the stark choices faced by villagers faced with a unfavourable point of entry in contemporary Bougainvillean and Papua New Guinean political economy.
Previously, in my masters' research I investigated the efforts by the Australian colonial government and anthropologists to understand and attempt to control religio-political social movements often referred to as 'cargo cults'. This history is especially significant in terms of understanding the origins of certain features of the post-colonial political system in Papua New Guinea, notably the lack of 'horizontal' social movements and the 'vertical' integration of communities into networks of patronage.
Research interests
Melanesian anthropology, Bougainville, political anthropology, ethnography of the state, Melanesian social movements, Austronesian social organization, kinship and land tenure systems in Melanesia, anthropology of development, political economy.
Qualifications
Expertise Areas
- Anthropology of Development
- Social and Cultural Anthropology
- Pacific History (excl. New Zealand and Maori)
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Projects
- 1 Finished
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Pacific Women PNG Research Training Program - Orders 3
Haley, N., Cintra Oppermann, T., Eves, R. & McMahon, H.
Cardno Emerging Markets (Australia) Pty Ltd
1/06/17 → 31/08/21
Project: Research
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The 2019 Bougainville Referendum and the Question of Independence: From Conflict to Consensus
Regan, A., Baker, K. & Cintra Oppermann, T., 2022, In: Journal of Pacific History. 57, 1, p. 58-88Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Coral Roads and their Sorcery: Lost Authority and Spectral Commodification in Buka
Cintra Oppermann, T., 2016, In: Oceania. 86, 2, p. 186-207Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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PRESENTATION - Political Transitions: Bougainville, New Caledonia and Fiji
Cintra Oppermann, T., 2016, CanberraResearch output: Other contribution
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Fake It Until You Make It: Searching for Mimesis in Buka Village Politics
Cintra Oppermann, T., 2015, In: Oceania. 85, 2, p. 199-218Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Gumine Joint District Assessment and Political Context Analysis
Wiltshire, C. & Cintra Oppermann, T., 2015Research output: Book/Report › Commissioned report