Dr Peter Dwyer
BSc (Vic, NZ), MSc (Vic, NZ), PhD (New England, NSW) Research Fellow
T: 8344 9178
Peter has carried out research on bats, rats, rock wallabies, birds, ants and people in New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea. Since 2000, he has worked with Monica Minnegal and PhD candidates Tanya King and Simone Blair on an ARC-funded anthropological study of commercial fishers in Victoria. This research investigates such matters as the organization of social relationships, community cohesion, identity, cooperation and conflict, decision-making in varying contexts, globalization, etc. Continuing research in the interior lowlands of Papua New Guinea explores questions of socioecology, change and evolution among a complex of culturally, linguistically and technologically related human societies of the interior lowlands of Papua New Guinea.
Peter has published one book, The Pigs that Ate the Garden: A Human Ecology from Papua New Guinea (1990) and more than one hundred articles. In 1997, Peter moved from the Department of Zoology at the University of Queensland, where he was a Reader, to the Anthropology program at The University of Melbourne. He joined the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies (now part of the School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry) in 1999.
Publications
Dwyer, P.D., R. Just and M. Minnegal, M. (2003) 'A sea of small names: Fishers and their boats in Victoria, Australia' Anthropological Forum 13(1): 5-26.
Minnegal, M., T. King, R. Just and P. D. Dwyer (2003) 'Deep identity, shallow time: Sustaining a future in Victorian fishing communities' The Australian Journal of Anthropology 14(1): 53-71.
Minnegal, M. and P.D. Dwyer (2001) 'Intensification, complexity and evolution: Insights from the Strickland-Bosavi region' in Agricultural Transformation and Intensification, edited by B. Allen, C. Ballard and E. Lowes. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 42(2/3): 269-285.
Dwyer, P.D. (2000) Mamihlapinatapai: Games people (might) play. Oceania 70: 231-251.
Minnegal, M. and P.D. Dwyer (2000) 'Responses to a drought in the tropical lowlands of Papua New Guinea: A comparison of Bedamuni and Kubo-Konai' Human Ecology 28: 493-526.
Dwyer, P.D. and M. Minnegal (1999) 'The transformation of use rights: A comparison of two Papua New Guinean societies' Journal of Anthropological Research 55 (3): 361-383.
Minnegal, M. and P.D. Dwyer (1999) 'Re-reading relationships: Changing constructions of identity among Kubo of Papua New Guinea' Ethnology 38 (1): 59-80.