ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2020
The role of third parties in norm enforcement in customary courts among the Enga of Papua New Guinea.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Children across societies enforce conventional norms but in culturally variable ways.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Trial
- What people learn from punishment: A cognitive model.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Teaching is associated with the transmission of opaque culture and leadership across 23 egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Laws about bodily damage originate from shared intuitions about the value of body parts.Science advances · 2025Article
- The social leverage effect: Institutions transform weak reputation effects into strong incentives for cooperation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Cross-societal variation in norm enforcement systems.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Expressed disapproval does not sustain long-term cooperation as effectively as costly punishment.Evolutionary human sciences · 2024Article
- Norm violations and punishments across human societies.Evolutionary human sciences · 2023Article
- Validating the dual evolutionary foundations of political values in a US sample.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Managing the stresses of group-living in the transition to village life.Evolutionary human sciences · 2022Article
- Are some cultures more mind-minded in their moral judgements than others?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- When marital institutions break down: Impact and adaptation among the Enga of Papua New Guinea.Evolutionary human sciences · 2021Article
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1 author.
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Abstract
Cultural norms are key to cooperation in human societies. How they are regulated, maintained, and adapted to the change remains a matter of debate. Humans have dispositions for both retributive and restorative justice; recent focus has been on third-party punishment, punitive sanctions by those not directly harmed, as key for norm enforcement. However, punishment does not engage the essential proficiencies and emotions critical to cooperation in small-scale societies with high dependence on collective action, sharing, and exchange. Third-party participation in norm enforcement is examined with data from a 10-y study among the Enga of Papua New Guinea. The Enga have a plural justice system with formal courts practicing retributive justice and customary courts applying restorative measures. Most cases are brought to customary courts. Drawing on observations from 333 village customary court cases concerning assault, marriage, land, and property violations, third-party engagement outside of and during customary court hearings is analyzed. Results show that all sides are heard, restoration is prioritized, and third-party punishment is rare; rather, third parties help with compensation to reintegrate wrongdoers and resolve conflicts. Repeated offenders and free riders receive ever less community support. Third parties contribute substantially both during and outside of customary court sessions to help kin, pursue economic agendas, or gain reputation. They also act generously to build a strong community. Emphasis is on amends to the victim for fairness, not punishment of the offender. Broad third-party participation is maintained throughout times of rapid change to adapt while supporting essential structures of society.
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