From Modern Production to Imagined Primitive: The Social World of Coffee from Papua New Guinea

by Paige West

West looks at the process from which coffee is grown, gathered, sorted, shipped, and served from the highlands of Papua New Guinea to coffee shops in far away places. She shows how coffee becomes a commodity, the different forms of labor involved, and the way that coffee shapes the lives and understandings of those who grow, process, export, sell and consume coffee.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Ethnography, School, Grad School

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 10, 2012

About the author

Mixed Greens , The West Collection , Art Addict

Reviews

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was poking around for more books on Papua New Guinea, and found the eBook of this at the library where I work. I hadn't considered reading an entire book about the crop production in one region, but here it is. In fact this is more of an econoethnography, as the anthropologist is a longterm researcher in this area of Papua New Guinea, and decides to focus on coffee for this book with chapter names like "neoliberal coffee" and "village coffee."

"Among coffee experts,... Papua New Guinea coffee is variously described as 'sweetly acidic with mild to medium body and fruity undertones,' having 'uniquely wild notes in the cup with a fruity endnote,'... and 'full-bodied with a thick texture and a smooth and soft aftertaste.'"

After reading Four Corners: A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea, where she mentions the growth of the coffee industry in PNG (from the perspective of the mid 90s), I ordered some PNG coffee online. I wanted to taste something connected to the land, and banana pancakes were not enough!

I was choosing between Peet's and Counter Culture Coffee, I ended up ordering the Baroida from Counter Culture, a single-origin coffee from the eastern highland region. And from this book I know almost 400,000 households in PNG grow coffee, with 30 percent of those households from the same province my pound of coffee came from.

Part of the book is about how coffee is marketed, with primitivism and poverty used frequently as selling points. The fact that I, an American middleclass woman in my mid-30s, purchased this coffee, means the marketing specifically targeting me as a coffee customer COMPLETELY WORKED. At least Counter Culture doesn't seem to be emphasizing their poverty or "thirdworldedness" the way some coffee importers do. The description on the website reflects the story in this book, that this is one more family growing coffee that used to sell to exporters that would blend it with other coffees, but now sells to exporters that will market it as single-origin, a step which has brought more money as the coffee market changes.

Apparently people from different countries value different things about coffee. Americans are most likely to choose a coffee or a coffee shop based on how it makes us feel, whether that's comfort or sameness or helping someone out of poverty (it's different for different generations.) Germans (according to West) value the intricate blends of coffees, whatever produces the best overall taste, and they don't care about the story.

Other little fascinating facts:

"One of every three people in Papua New Guinea is connected to the coffee industry in some way."

The connection between coffee, independence, and the economy:
"Coffee is one of the things that force us to act like a nation." - PNG government official

"Expatriates in New Guinea... have a saying about the people that come to New Guinea. They say that they are 'misfits, missionaries and mercenaries.'"

"Despite the important economic role that coffee plays in their lives, people in Maimafu do not drink coffee. They do not like it. It is thought of as bitter and tasting rather like soil."

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

"By using the images of growers to sell coffee beans in the contemporary, speeded-up world of capital, neoliberal marketing sets the stage for the moment when the lives of poor people across the planet become unfashionable and thereby unthinkable. Where will we be then?"

Paige West is so incisive in her analysis of the global coffee industry, which she writes about in part through the lens of coffee production in Papua New Guinea. Her many years of fieldwork there lead to a rich ethnography that is written really beautifully (unsurprising if you know her earlier work). Highly recommend just for reading a good ethnography, but I think it would be a lot of fun to teach--there are so many angles to get students thinking about where what they buy comes from and how it circulates to get to them, plus why they want to buy the things they buy. It's reasonably accessible but still contains an excellent theoretical framework and the best explanations of neoliberalism that I've seen to this point.

[Charlie Bavis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid ethnography, while providing global context to situate the social relationships and realities of coffee from Papua New Guinea. The theory is somewhat heavy, but adds depth to the incredibly far reaching analysis. To me the role of violence is missing and would do a great job expanding the depth and relationships brought up in the book. Overall, pretty good. I would definitely recommend.

[Keshia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an assigned book for an Anthropology course I took. I think it was well researched and written. I can tell the author truly cared for the people she was writing about and this book opened my eyes to a lot of "fair trade" buying that I was not aware of. I did find myself trailing off from the writing because it's such a long book and sometimes it was a little overkill, but honestly, it's a great book. Wonderful job.

[carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a fascinating read. i learned a lot about the social fabric making up papua new guinea, which i had 0 knowledge of prior to reading this. one of the most eye-opening books i’ve ever read!!

[Zeina Mohamed · Rating 2 out of 5]

BORING........

[Ville Gustafsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great insight beyond the shallow image of coffee production, logistics, consumption and certification I personally had before reading. People involved along the whole producer-consumer chain of coffee from Papua New Guinea to various destinations are interviewed and described quite thoroughly, and it's a pretty fulfilling picture West manages to create.

She has strong negative feelings about the neoliberal capitalistic economy, consumption and marketing and their impact on coffee farmers and other - especially small-scale - producers around the world. Unfortunately she also seems to be one of the authors pointing out problems but not presenting solutions - except from between the lines.

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone who tries to buy "fair trade", "organic" or "green" should read this book, especially coffee drinkers. Yes, a bit of guilt, but knowledge is power! Essentially, the system is too screwed up for us to change just by drinking "fair trade" coffee. It's a great first step, but we need to do more.

The only reason I'm not finishing this book, at the moment, is that I need to move on to other homework reading. This is definitely a book I could see buying and finishing later.