Life histories of research participants on applied development projects can bring into view unanticipated social forms. This is particularly true for the way such projects frame gender. We document development-focused research in two cities in Papua New Guinea (PNG) that elicited accounts of widowhood, wherein participants called our attention to the implications of this kinship category for the urban context of our work. Widowhood in PNG refers not only to a woman whose husband has died but also to a woman whose husband has absconded from the marriage without a formal divorce. In the absence of support from their families, our interlocutors describe how widowhood required them to explore new ways of connecting with each other for mutual support. Their stories underscore the necessity of attention to emergent gendered subjectivities in development contexts, and to the changing nature of marriage and social reproduction in contemporary PNG.

Dispela atikol i lukluk long hau laip histri bilong ol risets patisipen long ol aplai divelopmen projek i ken bringim sampela kain sosel fom i kam insait long tingting we ol dispela projek i no bin tingim. Dispela em i tru tru long wei ol dispela kain projek i save skelim jenda. Mipela i raitim ol risets we i lukluk long divelopmen long tupela siti insait long Papua Niugini (PNG) we i kamapim ol stori bilong “widowhood” we ol lain i stap insait long dispela wok painimaut i singautim tingting bilong mipela long ol samting dispela “kinship category” i kamapim long wok bilong mipela long ol taun. Widowhood long PNG i no minim tasol meri husat man bilong em i dai pinis, tasol tu meri husat man bilong em i ranawe long marit na i no gat fomal divos. Ol stori bilong ol lain we mipela i toktok wantaim ol i soim olsem taim ol i stap wido i nidim ol long painim ol nupela rot bilong bungim narapela narapela long sapotim narapela narapela taim femili bilong ol i no sapotim ol. Ol dispela stori i soim olsem yumi mas luksave long ol nupela tingting i kamap insait long wokmak bilong man na meri insait long ol divelopmen konteks, na long senis bilong marit na sosel riprodaksen insait long PNG bilong nau.