In this article I consider why individuals sacrifice their lives for the collective. In the Porgera Valley of highlands Papua New Guinea, young men who are called ‘Rambos’ engage in sustained tribal conflicts due to increasing social inequalities in an area that is supposedly benefiting from socioeconomic development. The opening of the Porgera Gold Mine in 1990 ushered in an era of anticipated benefits that were hoped to transform the lives of the region’s subsistence horticulturalists. Yet, anticipated flows of mining money and social benefits have largely failed to materialise. The abjection experienced by young men eventuated into a series of tribal fights, resulting in deaths, displacements, and the destruction of most infrastructure. I examine the fighting and its aftermath in relation to anthropologies of the dark and the good and argue that these polar opposites can hinder more subtle understandings of value plurality among Porgerans.

中文翻译：

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巴布亚新几内亚高原的资源冲突和黑暗与善良的人类学

在这篇文章中，我考虑了为什么个人会为集体牺牲自己的生命。在巴布亚新几内亚高原的 Porgera 山谷，被称为“Rambos”的年轻男子因该地区社会不平等加剧而陷入持续的部落冲突，该地区据称受益于社会经济发展。1990 年 Porgera 金矿的开业迎来了一个预期收益的时代，希望能改变该地区自给自足的园艺家的生活。然而，采矿资金和社会福利的预期流动在很大程度上未能实现。年轻人所经历的落寞最终演变成一系列部落斗争，导致死亡、流离失所和大多数基础设施遭到破坏。