Kamula Accounts of Rambo and the State of Papua New Guinea‪.‬

INTRODUCTION Critical evaluations of the figure of Rambo, metropolitan and non-metropolitan alike, assert his crucial place in the changing understanding of violence and masculinity (Jeffords 1989, Jourdan 1995, Pfeil 1995, Richards 1996, Dyer 1997). In this essay I extend the scope of that critical understanding by considering his influence among Kamula men, living in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG). (1) It complements work by Wardlow (1996) and Kulick and Willson (1994) on the relationship between televisual media and gender in PNG. These works dealt with gender issues as they relate to the viewing and interpretation of specific videos. By contrast in this paper I analyse Kamula talk of Rambo where there is virtually no direct reference to the content of any of his films and videos.