Enga province in the highlands of Papua New Guinea faces numerous 'law and order' problems including election-related violence, the persecution of supposed witches, public disorder and violence by security guards around the Porgera gold mine, and that ubiquitous but poorly-defined phenomenon of 'tribal fighting'. Enga's situation is part of a broader syndrome of disorder that also occurs in nearby Hela province and can perhaps be felt throughout the country more generally.

This talk argues that the persistence of Enga's 'failed,' 'fragile,' or 'weak' state has roots in the original choices of the Australian colonial administration. An historical anthropology may shed new light on topics previously described by a synchronic functionalism by policy experts, on the one hand, and a particularistic anthropology of the state on the other.