Book review: West, Paige 2012. From Modern Production to Imagined Primitive: The Social World of Coffee from Papua New Guinea.

In her newest book Paige West sets out to examine neoliberal capitalism, its effects and global connections by tracing the production, distribution and consumption of coffee. More specifically her focus is on coffee produced by the Gimi speaking peoples of the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG). In an ethnographically rich description West shows how the Gimi produce coffee; attach meaning to it and how coffee production has profoundly changed the Gimi environment and subjectivities. By tracing the movement of coffee, she shows how the Gimi interact with Papua New Guinean buyers, what social worlds coffee creates among coffee workers and coffee producer elites of urban PNG and finally how coffee from Eastern Highlands is being sold in capitalism’s centers.Non peer reviewe