Resource Distribution, Land Ownership, and Corruption: Cultural Consequences of Mining in Kurumbukari's Bundi Society

ABSTRACT The study examines how traditional cultural practices are intertwined with changes in corruption in Kurumbukari, investigating how Bundi traditions before mining transformed due to socio‐economic and political shifts caused by mining. A mixed‐method was employed, including ethnographic fieldwork, historical analyses, participant observations, and semi‐structured interviews with 222 stakeholders. Complementary historical data were drawn from scholarly works and archives. Qualitative data were analyzed using NVivo, while SPSS was applied to quantitative demographic and socio‐economic data. Findings reveal significant changes in Bundi cultural practices post‐mining, particularly in land ownership, resource entitlement, and social hierarchies. Stakeholders' experiences diverged between landowners and non‐landowners, with mining exacerbating social inequalities and power imbalances. The study enhances understanding of socio‐political transformations in traditional societies facing resource‐based development. Combining historical ethnography with contemporary socio‐economic analysis, the research uniquely links traditional cultural practices to corruption dynamics in industrial mining in Papua New Guinea.