Part I: 1. From great men to big men: peace, substitution and competition in the Highlands of New Guinea Pierre Lemonnier; 2; Great man, big man, chief: a triangulation of the Massim John Liep; 3. Soaring hawks and grounded persons: the politics of rank and gender in north Vanuatu Margaret Jolly; Part II: 4. Punishing the yams: leadership and gender ambivalence on Sabarl Island Debora Battaglia; 5. Great men and total systems: North Mekeo hereditary authority and social reproduction Mark Moska; 6 The cryptic brotherhood of big men and great men in Ilahita Donald Tuzin; 7. Complementarily and rivalry: two contradictory principles in Yafar society Bernard Juillerat; 8. How Oro Province societies fit Godelier's model Eric Schwimmer; Part III: 9. The fractal person Roy Wagner; 10. The flute myth and the law of equivalence: origins of a principle of exchange Gillian Allison; 11. One man and many men Marilyn Strathern; 12. 'Interests' in exchange: increment, equivalence and the limits of big-manship Rena Lederman; 13. Post-Ipomoean modernism: the Duna example Nicholas Modjeska; 14. Big men, great men and women: alternative logics of gender difference Dan Jorgensen.