‘Removing the Youth from their Pernicious Environment’: Child Separation Practices in South Dutch New Guinea, 1902-1921

This article examines practices of child separation in South Dutch New Guinea during the first two decades of colonial administration and missionary presence, spanning the years 1902-1920. By examining the ways in which the Dutch Catholic missionary priests and brothers of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Missionnaires du Sacré Coeur – MSC) sought to ‘civilise’ the Marind-anim and reconfigure Marind society, I argue that this ‘civilising’ project concentrated on the management, control and transformation of bodies and bodily practices – especially those of children. This project... Mehr ...