CHAPTER XI

IN THE AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY OF THE KULA
I
UR party, sailing from the North, reach first the main island f Gumasila, a tall, steep mountain with arched lines and reat cliffs, suggesting vaguely some huge Gothic monument. o the left, a heavy pyramid, the island of Domdom, recedes ehind the nearer mountain as the travellers approach. The eet now sails along the westerly shore of Gumasila, on which de the jungle, interspersed with bald patches, ascends a eep slope, ribbed with rocky ridges, and creased by valleys hich run at their foot into wide bays. Only here and there an be seen triangular clearings, signs of cultivation made by 1e natives from the other side of the island, where the two illages are situated. At the South-West end of Gumasila, narrow promontory runs into a flat, low point with a sandy each on both sides. On the North side of the point, hidden om the villages, the fleet comes to a halt, on the beach of iyawana (called by the Trobrianders Giyasila). This is the lace where all the fleets, arriving from the North, stop before pproaching the villages. Here also the inhabitants of the mphletts rest for a day, after the first false start they have jade from the villages, and before they actually set off for the robriands. This beach, in short, is the Amphlettan counter- art of the sandbank Muwa. It was also here that I surprised 1e Gumasilan canoes on a full moon night, in March, 1918, ‘ter they had started to join the uvalaku expedition to inaketa.
On this beach, the Sinaketans perform the final stage of ula magic, before approaching their partners in Gumasila. he same magic will be repeated before arriving in Dobu, and ; a matter of fact, when the objective of the big uvalaku is obu, the full and ceremonial performance of the magic might
267
268 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
usually be deferred till then. It will be better therefore to postpone the description of this magic till we have brought ou1 fleet to the beach of Sarubwoyna. Here it will be enough to mention that on occasions when magic is performed, after ar hour’s or half hour’s pause on the beach of Giyawana, all the men get into their canoes, take the paddles and oars, and the fleet sails round the point where, in a small, very picturesque bay, there lies the smaller village of Gumasila, called Nu’agas: (see Plate I). This village in olden days was perched on : narrow ledge some one hundred metres above the sea level, é fastness difficult of access, and overlooking all its approaches Now, after the white man’s influence has rendered unnecessary} all precautions against raiding parties, the village has coms down to the narrow strip of foreshore, a bridge between the sez and a small swamp formed at the foot of the hill. Some of the canoes will come to this beach, the others will sail further under a precipitous black rock of some 150 metres high ane 300 metres wide (see Plate XLII). Turning another corner they arrive at the big village of Gumasila, built on artificia stone terraces, surrounded by dykes of small stones, formin; square lagoons and diminutive harbours (compare the descrip tion given above in Chapter I, Division V). This is the ol village which, practically inaccessible by sea, formed a fastnes of a different kind from the other, high-perched village typical of this district. Exposed to the full onslaught of th South-Easterly winds and seas, against which it was protecter by its stone bulwarks and dykes, it was approachable only in al weathers by a small channel to the South, where a big rock and reef shelter it from the rough waters. |
Without any preliminary welcoming ceremony or forma reception, the Sinaketan guests now leave their canoes ant disperse among the villagers, settle down in groups near thi houses of their friends, and engage in betel chewing ant conversations. They speak in Kiriwinian, a language whic! is universally known in the Amphletts. Almost as soon as the: go ashore, they give to their partners presents of pari (openini gift), some small object, such as a comb, a lime pot, or a limi stick. After that, they await some Kula gifts to be give’ them. The most important headman will offer such a gif first to Kouta’uya, or To’udawada, whichever of them is th tolt'uvalaku of the occasion. The soft, penetrating sound "
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 269
conch-shell soon announces that the first gift has been given. Other blasts of conch-shells follow, and the Kula is in full swing. But here again, what happens in the Amphletts, is only a minor interlude to the Sinaketan adventurers, bent on the bigger goal in Dobu. And in order for us to remain in harmony with the native perspective we shall also wait for the detailed and circumstantial description of the Kula _ pro- ceedings till we arrive on the beach of Tu’utauna, in Dobu. The concrete account of how such a visiting fleet is received and behaves on arrival will be given, when I describe a scene I saw with my own eyes in the village of Nabwageta, another Amphlett island, when sixty Dobuan canoes arrived there on their uvalaku, en route for Boyowa.
To give a definite idea of the conversations which take place between the visitors and the Amphlettans, I shall give a sample noted down, during a visit of some Trobrianders to Nu’agasi, the smaller village of Gumasila. A few canoes had arrived a day or two before, in the neighbouring island, Nabwageta, coming from the small Western islands of the Trobriands ona Kula. One of them paddled across to Nu’agasi with a crew of some six men, in order to offer pari gifts to their partners and see what was to be done in the way of Kula. The canoe was sighted froma distance, and its purpose was guessed at once, as word had been brought before of the arrival in Nabwageta of this small expedition. The headman of Nu’agasi, Tovasana, hurried back to his house from my tent, where I was taking great pains to obtain some ethnographic information from him.
Tovasana is an outspoken character, and he is the most important headman in the Amphletts. I am not using the word ‘ chief,’ for in the Amphletts, as I have said, the natives do not observe either the court ceremonial with crouching and bending, nor do the headmen have any power or economic influence, at all comparable with those of the Trobriands. Yet, although I came from the Trobriands, I was struck by the authoritative tone used, and the amount of influence evidently wielded by Tovasana. This is partly due undoubtedly to the lack of white man’s interference, which has so undermined native authority and morality in the Trobriands, whereas the Amphletts have so far escaped to a large extent Missionary teaching and Government law and order. On the other hand,
270 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
however, the very narrow sphere of his powers, the authority over a small village, consolidates the headman’s influence. The oldest and the most aristocratic by descent of all the headmen, he is their acknowledged ‘ doyen.’
In order to receive his visitors he went to the beach in front of his house and sat there on a log, looking impassively over the sea. When the Trobrianders arrived each man took a gift and went to his partner’s house. The chief did not rise to meet them, nor did they come in a body to greet him. The toliwaga came towards the place where Tovasana was sitting ; he carried a bundle of taro and a piece of gugu’a (objects of small value, such as combs, lime pots, etc.) These he laid down near the seated headman, who, however, took no notice of it. A small boy, a grandchild of Tovasana, I think, took’ up the gifts and put them into his house. Then, without having yet exchanged a word, the ¢oliwaga sat down on the platform next to Tovasana. Under a shady tree, which spread its branches like a canopy above the bleached canoe, the men formed a picturesque group sitting cross-legged on the platform. Beside the slim, youthful figure of the Kaduwaga man, the old Tovasana, with his big, roughly carved features, with his large aquiline nose sticking out from under an enormous turban-like wig, looked like an old gnome. At first exchanging merely a word or two, soon they dropped into more animated conversation, and when other villagers and the rest of the visitors joined them, the talk became general. As they spoke in Kiriwinian, I was able to jot down the beginning of their conversation.
Tovasana asked :
““ Where have you anchored ? ”’ “In Nabwageta.”’ “When did you come?”
“ Yesterday.”
“From where did you start on the last day before arriving ? ”’
“ From Gabuwana.”
“ When ? ”
“The day before yesterday.”’
“What wind ? ” “Started from home with yavata; wind changed.
Arrived on sandbank (Gabuwana) ; we slept ; so-and-so made wind magic ; wind changed again ; good wind.”
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 27%
Then Tovasana asked the visitors about one of the chiefs from the island of Kayleula (to the West of Kiriwina), and when he was going to give him a big pair of mwalt. The man answered they do not know ; to their knowledge that chief has no big mwali at present. Tovasana became very angry, and in a long harangue, lapsing here and there into the Gumasila language, he declared that he would never kula again with that chief, who is a topiki (mean man), who has owed him for a long time a pair of mwali as yotile (return gift), and who always is slow in making Kula. A string of other accusations about some clay pots given by Tovasana to the same chief, and some pigs promised and never given, were also made by the angry headman. The visitors listened to it with polite assent, uttering here and there some noncommital remark. They, in their turn, complained about some sago, which they had hoped to receive in Nabwageta, but which was churlishly refused for some reason or other to all the men of Kaduwaga, Kaysiga and Kuyawa.
Tovasana then asked them, ‘‘ How long are you going to stay?”
“Till Dobu men come.”
“They will come,” said Tovasana, ‘“‘ not in two days, not in three days, not in four days; they will come tomorrow, or at the very last, the day after tomorrow.”
“You go with them to Boyowa ? ”’
“T sail first to Vakuta, then to Sinaketa with the Dobu men. They sail to Susuwa beach to fish, I go to your villages, to Kaduwaga, to Kaysiga, to Kuyawa. Is there plenty of mwali in your villages ? ”’
“Yes, there are. So-and-so has .. ,”
Here followed a long string of personal names of big armshells, the approximate number of smaller, nameless ones, and the names of the people in whose possession they were at the time.
The interest of both hearers and speakers was very obvious, and Tovasana gave the approximate dates of his movements to his visitors. Full moon was approaching, and the natives have got names for every day during the week before and after full moon, and the following and preceding days can therefore be reckoned. Also, every seven-day period within a moon is named after the quarter which falls in it. This allows the natives to fix dates with a fair exactitude. The present example shows the way in which, in olden times, the movements of the
272 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
various expeditions were known over enormous areas ; nowa- days, when white men’s boats with native crews often move from one island to the other, the news spreads even more easily. In former times, small preliminary expeditions such as the one we have just been describing, would fix the dates and make arrangements often for as much as a year ahead.
The Kaduwaga men next inquired as to whether any strangers from the Trobriands were then staying in Gumasila. The answer was that there was in the village one man from Ba’u, and one from Sinaketa. Then inquiries were made as to how many Kula necklaces there were in Gumasila, and the conversation drifted again into Kula technicalities.
It is quite customary for men from the Trobriands to remain for a long time in the Amphletts, that is, from one expedition to another. For some weeks or even months, they live in the house of their partner, friend, or relative, careful to keep to the customs of the country. They will sit about with the men of the village and talk. They will help in the work and go out on fishing expeditions. These latter will be specially attractive to a Trobriander, a keen fisherman himself, who here finds an entirely new type of this pursuit. Whether an expedition would be made on one of the sandbanks, where the fishermen remain for a few days, casting their big nets for dugong and turtle ; or whether they would go out in a small canoe, trying to catch the jumping gar fish with a fishing kite ; or throwing a fish trap into the deep sea—all these would be a novelty to the Trobriander, accustomed only to the methods suitable to the shallow waters of the Lagoon, swarming with fish.
In one point the Trobriander would probably find his sojourn in the Amphletts uncongenial ; he would be entirely debarred from any intercourse with women. Accustomed in his country to easy intrigues, here he has completely to abstain, not only from sexual relations with women married or un- married, but even from moving with them socially, in the free and happy manner characteristic of Boyowa. One of my main informants, Layseta, a Sinaketa man, who spent several years in the Amphletts, confessed to me, not without shame and regret, that he never succeeded in having any intrigues with the women there. To save his face, he claimed that he had had several Amphlett belles declaring their love to him, and offering their favours, but he always refused them :
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 273
“T feared ; I feared the bowo’u of Gumasila; they are very bad.”’
The bowo’u are the local sorcerers of the Amphletts. Whatever we might think about Layseta’s temptations—and his personal appearance and charm do not make his boastings very credible—and whether he was afraid of sorcery or of a sound thrashing, the fact remains that a Trobriander would have to change his usual mode of behaviour when in the Amphletts, and keep away from the women entirely. When big parties arrive in Gumasila, or Nabwageta, the women run away, and camp in the bush till the beach is clear.
The Amphlettans, on the contrary, were used to receive favours from unmarried women in Sinaketa. Nowadays, the male inhabitants of that village, always disapproving of the custom, though not to the extent of taking any action, tell the Amphlettans that the white man’s Government has prohibited the men from Gumasila and Nabwageta to have sexual relations in Sinaketa. One of the very few occasions, when the men from the Amphletts showed any interest in talking to me was when they asked me whether this was true.
“The Sinaketa men tell us that we will go to jail if we sleep with girls in Sinaketa. Would the Government put us into jail, in truth ? ”
As usually, I simply disclaimed all knowledge of the white man’s arcana in such matters.
The small party of Kaduwaga men, whose visit to Tovasana I have just been describing, sat there for about two hours, smoked and chewed betel-nut, the conversation flagging now and then, and the men looking into the distance with the habitual self-important expression worn on such occasions. After the final words about mutual plans were exchanged, and a few pots had been brought by small boys to the canoe as talo’s (farewell gift to the visitors), they embarked, and paddled back three or four miles across to Nabwageta.
We must imagine the big Kula party from Sinaketa, whee we just watched landing in the two villages of Gumasila, behaving more or less in the same manner ; conducting similar conversations, offering the same type of pari gifts to their partners. Only everything happens of course on a much bigger scale. There is a big group seated before each house,
274 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
parties walk up and down the village, the sea in front of it is covered with the gaudy, heavily laden canoes. In the little village, of which Tovasana is headman, the two chiefs, To’uda- wada and Kouta’uya, will be seated on the same platform, on which we saw the old man receiving his other guests. The other headmen of the Sinaketans will have gone to the bigger village round the corner, and will encamp there under the tall palms, looking across the straits towards the pyramidal forms of Domdom, and further South, to the main island fronting them _ with the majestic form of Koyatabu. Here, among the small houses on piles, scattered picturesquely through the maze of little harbours, lagoons and dykes, large groups of people will be seated on mats of plaited coco-nut, each man asa rule under the dwelling of his partner, chewing betel-nut stolidly, and watching stealthily the pots being brought out to be presented to them, and still more eagerly awaiting the giving of Kula gifts, although he remains to a superficial glance quite impassive.
II
In Chapter III I spoke about the sociology of Kula, and gave a concise definition of partnership with its functions and — obligations. I said there that people enter into this relation- ship in a definite manner, and remain in it for the rest of their life. I also said that the number of partners a man possesses, depends upon his social position and rank. The protective character of an overseas partner becomes now clearer, after we have realised the nervous tension with which each Kula party in olden days would have approached a land full of mulukwausi, bowo’u and other forms of sorcery, a land from which originate the very fauva’u themselves.* To have a friend there, one who will not on the surface of it have bad intentions, is a great boon. What this really means to the natives can, however, only be realised when we arrive at Dobu, learn the special: safety magic performed there and find how genuinely serious these apprehensions are.
We must now make another short digression from our con- secutive account, and discuss the several aspects of the sociology of the Kula one after the other.
\ * See Chapter II, Division VII.
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 275
1. Soctological Limitations to the Participation in the Kula.— Not everyone who lives within the cultural sphere of the Kula does participate init. More especially in the Trobriand Islands, there are whole districts which do not practise the Kula. Thus a series of villages in the North of the main Island, the villages on the Island of Tuma, as well as the industrial villages of Kuboma and the agricultural ones of Tilataula do not practise Kula. In villages like Sinaketa, Vakuta, Gumasila and Nabwageta, every man carries on the Kula. The same applies to the small Islands which link up the big gaps of the Kula chain, the Islands of Kitava, Iwa, Gawa and Kwayawata, strewn on the seas between the Trobriands and Woodlark Island, to Tubetube and Wari, etc., etc. In the Dobuan speaking district, on the other hand, I think that certain village complexes either do not practice Kula at all, or else practice it on a small scale, that is, their headmen have only a few partners in the neighbouring vil!ages.
In some of the big chiefs’ villages in Kiriwina there are certain people who never practice Kula. Thus, in a village where the headman has the rank of guya’s (chief) or gumguya’u (minor chief) the commoners of the lowest rank and unrelated to the headman are not sup- posed to carry on the Kula. In olden days this rule would be very strictly observed, and nowadays even, though some- what relaxed, not many commoners of this description practice the Kula. Limitations as to entry into the Kula, therefore, exist only in big Kula districts such as that of Dobu and of the Trobriands, and they are partly local, excluding whole villages, and partly social, excluding certain people of low rank.
2. The Relation of Partnership.—The name for an overseas partner is in the Trobriand language karayta’u ; ‘ my partner’ is styled ulo karayta’u, ulo being the possessive pronoun of remote relation. In Gumasila he is called ulo ta’u, which means simply ‘my man’; in Dobuan, yegu gumagi. The inland partners are known in Kiriwinian by the term denoting a friend, ‘lubaygu,’ the suffixed possessive pronoun gu being that of nearest possession.
Only after this relationship has been established between two men, can the two make Kula with one another. An overseas visitor would as a rule go to his partner’s house and
276 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
offer him a small present as part. This again would be returned by the local man by means of a talo’i present. There would not be any great intimacy between two overseas partners. But, in sharp contrast to the essential hostility between two strange tribesmen, such a relationship of friendship would stand out as the most remarkable deviation from the general rule. Ininland relations between two partners of neighbouring villages, the closeness and intimacy would be relatively small as com- pared to other ties. This relation was defined to me in these words :
““My partner same as my clansman (kakaveyogu)—he might fight me. My real kinsman (veyogu), same navel- string, would always side with us.”’
The best way of obtaining detailed information, and of eliminating any errors which might have crept into ethno- graphic generalisations, is to collect concrete data. I have drawn up a complete list of the partners of Kouta’uya, who is one of the biggest Kula men in the whole Ring; another list of a smaller Sinaketa headman, Toybayoba ; and of course I know several complements of partners of smaller men, who, as as rule, have about four to six partners each.
The full list of Kouta’uya includes fifty-five men in the Northern Half of Boyowa, that is, in Luba, Kulumata and Kiriwina. From these the chief receives armshells. To the South, his partners in the Southern districts of Boyowa and Vakuta are twenty-three by number ; in the Amphletts eleven, and twenty-seven in Dobu. Thus we see that the numbers to the South and North almost balance, the Southern exceeding the Northern by six. These numbers include his partners in Sinaketa, where he makes Kula with all his fellow chiefs, and with all the headmen of the divisional villages, and in his own little village he kulas with his sons. But even there, everyone of his partners is either South or North to him, that is, either gives him the necklaces or armshells.
All the clans are represented in the list. Often when asked with regard to the name of some man, why he is in partnership with him, the answer would be—“ Because he is my kinsman,” which means, in this case, clansman of equal rank. Men of other clans are included, as ‘ friends,’ or relatives-in-law, or for some other reason more or less imaginary. Ishall speak
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 277
presently of the mechanism through which the man enters on this relation.
The list of Toybayoba’s partners includes twelve men to the North, four in Southern Boyowa, three in the Amphletts and eleven in Dobu, the balance here also being on the Southern side. As said above, minor men might have anything between four to ten partners all told, whereas there are men in northern Boyowa who have only two partners, one on each side of the ring, so to speak, with whom they make Kula.
In drawing up these lists, which I shall not reproduce here in extenso, another striking feature comes to light : on both sides, there is a definite geographical limit, beyond which a man cannot have any partners. For all men in the village of Sinaketa, for instance, this limit, as regards the armshells, coincides with the furthest boundary of Kiriwina ; that is, no man from Sinaketa has any partners in Kitava, which is the next Kula district beyond Kiriwina. South, in the direction from which the soulava are received, the villages at the South- East end of Fergusson Island are the last places where partners of Sinaketan men are still to be found. The small Island of Dobu itself lies just beyond this boundary, and no man in this Island or in any of the villages on Normanby Island makes Kula with the Sinaketans (compare the circles, indicating Kula Communities on Map V).
Beyond these districts, the men still know the names of what could be called their partners-once-removed, that is, the partners of their partners. In the case of a man who has only a couple of partners on each side, who, again being modest men, have also only one or two, this relationship is not devoid of importance. If I, in Sinaketa, have one partner, say in Kiriwina, who again has one partner in Kitava, it is no small matter for me to learn that this Kitava man just obtained a splendid pair of armshells. For this means that there is about a quarter of a chance of my receiving these armshells, on the supposition that the Kitavan and Kiriwinian have two partners each between whom they can choose in bestowing them. In the case of a big chief like Kouta’uya, however, the number of once-removed partners becomes so great that they lose any personal significance forhim. Kouta’uya has some twenty-five partners in Kiriwina; among them To’uluwa, the big chief, makes Kula with more than half of all the men in Kitava. :
278 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
Some other of Kouta’uya’s partners in Kiriwina, of lesser rank, yet quite important, also make Kula with a great number, so that probably practically everybody in Kitava is Kouta’uya’s partner-once-removed.
If we were to imagine that on the Kula Ring there are many people who have only one partner on each side, then the Ring would consist of a large number of closed circuits, on each of which the same articles would constantly pass. Thus if A in Kiriwina always kulas with B in Sinaketa who kulas with C in Tubetube, who kulas with D in Murua, who kulas with E in Kitava, who kulas with A in Kiriwina, then ABC DEF would form such one strand in the big Kula circuit. If an armshell got into the hands of one of them, it could never leave . this strand. But the Kula Ring is nothing approaching this, because every small Kula partner has, as a rule, on one side or the other, a big one, that is a chief. And every chief plays the - part of a shunting-station for Kula objects. Having so many partners on each side, he constantly transfers an object from one strand to another. Thus, any article which on its rounds has travelled through the hands of certain men, may on its second round come through an entirely different channel. This, of course, supplies a large part of the zest and excitement of the Kula exchange.
The designation of such a partner-once-removed in the language of Kiriwina is muri-murt. A man will say that such and such a one is ‘ my partner-once-removed,’ ‘ ulo murimurt.’ Another expression connected with this relationship is to inquire “whose hand ’ has passed on such and such a vaygu’a. When To’uluwa gives a pair of armshells to Kouta’uya, this latter will ask: ‘avatle yamala (whose hand)’? The answer is. ‘yamala Pwata’i,’ (‘the hand of Pwatai’). And, as a rule, more or less the following conversation will ensue: ‘ who: gave this pair of armshells to Pwata’i?” ‘“‘how long were they kept by a man in the Island of Yeguma, and then distributed on the occasion of a so’ (feast) ?’”’ ‘‘ when they had been. the last time in Boyowa ?”’ etc., etc.
3. Entering the Kula Relationship.—In order to become a practising member of the Kula, a man must have passed the stage of adolescence ; he must have the status and rank required, that is in such villages where this condition is demanded ; he must know the magic of the Kula; and last, not least, he
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 279
must be in possession of a piece of vaygu’a. The membership, with all its concomitant implications, may be received from the father, who teaches his son the magic, gives him a piece of vaygu'a, and provides him with a partner, very often in his own person.
Supposing one of the sons of Kouta’uya has reached the stage where a lad may begin to kula. The chief will have been teaching him the spells for some time already. Moreover the lad, who from childhood has taken part in overseas expeditions, has many a time seen the rites performed and heard the spells uttered. When the time is ripe, Kouta’uya, having the conch- shell blown, and with all due formalities, presents a soulava to his son. This latter,’soon afterwards, goes somewhere North. Perhaps he goes only to one of the neighbouring villages within Sinaketa, perhaps he accompanies his father on a visit as far North as Omarakana, and in any case he makes Kula, either with one of his father’s friends and partners, or with a special friend of hisown. Thus, at one stroke, the lad is equipped with magic, vaygu’a, and two partners, one of whom is his father. His northern partner will give him in due course an armshell, and this he will probably offer to his father. The transactions once started continue. His father soon gives him another vaygu'a, which he may kula with the same northern partner, or he may try to establish another partnership. The next mwalt (armshells) he receives from the North, he will probably give to another partner in the South, and thus establish a new relationship. A chief's son, who is always a commoner himself (since the chief cannot marry within his own sub-clan and the son has the status of his mother), would not multiply his partners beyond the limit numerically given by the above mentioned partners of Toybayoba.
Not everyone, however, is as fortunate as to be the son of a chief, which in the Trobriands is, on the whole, one of the most enviable positions, since it confers many privileges, and entails no special responsibilities. A young chief himself would have to pay substantially for establishing his position in the Kula, for a chief is always the son of a woman of high rank, and the nephew ofa chief, though his father may be a commoner of small influence only. In any case, his maternal uncle will expect from him some fokala (offerings by instalment), in pay- ment for magic, vaygu’a, and finally for a leading position in
280 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
the Kula. The young chief would marry, and thus acquire wealth within limits, and with this he would have to give presents to his maternal uncle, who in turn would introduce him into the Kula, exactly as a chief does his son, only not dis- interestedly.
A commoner enters into the Kula like a chief, with the only exception that everything is on a smaller scale, the amount of the pokala which he gives to his maternal uncle, the vaygu’a which he receives, and the number of partners with whom he kulas. When a man gives to another a piece of vaygu’a, of the Kula kind, but not as a Kula exchange but as a gift, let us say as youlo (gift in repayment for the harvest supply offerings, see above, Chapter VI, Division VI), this vaygu’a does not leave the Kula Ring. The receiver, if he had not been in the Kula yet, enters into it by acquiring the vaygw’a, and can then choose his partner, and go on with the exchange.
There is one important qualification of the statement made at the beginning of this section. I said there that a man entering the Kula Ring, must learn the mwasila magic. This refers only to those who practise overseas Kula. For people who do only the inland exchange, magic is not necessary, and in fact it is never learned by them.
4. Participation of Women in the Kula.—As I have said in the general descriptive chapter on the Kula tribes, the position of women among them is by no means characterised by oppres- sion or social insignificance. They have their own sphere of influence, which, in certain cases and in certain tribes, is of great importance. The Kula, however, is essentially a man’s type of activity. As mentioned above, in the section between Sinaketa and Dobu, women do not sail on the big expeditions. From Kiriwina young, unmarried girls would sail East to Kitava, Iwa, and Gawa, and from these Islands even old, married women, indeed whole families, come to Kiriwina. But they do not carry on overseas Kula exchange, neither . among themselves, nor with men.
In Kiriwina, some women, notably the chief’s wives, are admitted to the honour and privilege of exchanging vaygw’a, though in such cases the transactions are done en famille. To take a concrete case, in October or November, 1915, To’uluwa, the chief of Omarakana, brought a fine haul of mwali from Kitava. The best pair of these he presented to his veteran wife,
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 281
Bokuyoba, a wife whom he had inherited from his elder brother Numakala. Bokuyoba in turn gave the pair, without much delay, to Kadamwasila, the favourite wife of the chief, the mother of five sons and one daughter. She again gave it to her son, Namwana Guyau, who kula’d it on to some of his southern partners. Next time he receives a soulava necklace, he will give it, not to his father directly, but to his mother, who will hand it over to her senior colleague, and this venerable lady will give it to To’uluwa. The whole transaction is evidently a complimentary interpolation of the two gtyovila (chief’s wives) in between the simple transaction of the chief giving the vaygu’a to his son. This interpolation gives the women much pleasure, and is highly valued by them. In fact, at that time I heard more about that than about all the rest of the exchanges associated with this overseas trip.
In Southern Boyowa, that is in Sinaketa and Vakuta, the role of women is similar, but they play besides another part. A man would sometimes send his wife with a Kula gift to his partner in the neighbouring village. On some occasions, when he needs vaygu’a very badly, as for instance when he is expecting some uvalaku visitors, his wife may help him to obtain the vaygu’a from that partner. For, though this latter might refuse to give it to his Sinaketan partner, he would not do so to his wife. It must be added that no sexual motives are associ- ated with it, and that it is only a sort of customary compliment paid to the fair sex.
In Dobu, the wife, or the sister of a man, is always credited with a great influence over his Kula decisions. Therefore, there is a special form of magic, used by the Sinaketans, in order to act on the minds of the Dobuan women. Although, in matters of sex, a Trobriander would have absolutely to keep aloof from Dobuan women, married or unmarried, he would approach them with nice speeches and gifts in matters of Kula. He would reproach an unmarried girl with her brother’s conduct towards him. She would then ask for a piece of betel nut. This would be given with some magic spoken over it, and the girl, it is believed, would then influence her brother to kula with his partner.*
* I cannot tell what sort of influence this would be, exercised by a sister over her brotherin Dobu. I do not even know whether, in that district, there obtains the same taboo between brother and sister as in the Trobriands.
282 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
III
In the short outline of the Amphlett tribe which was given in Chapter II, Division IV, I called them ‘typical monopolists,’ both with reference to their economic position and to their character. Monopolists they are in two respects, namely as manufacturers of the wonderful clay pots which form the only supply for the surrounding districts ; and in the second place, as a commercial community, situated half-way between the populous country of Dobu, with its rich gardens and coco-nut plantations, on the one hand, and the Trobriands, the main industrial community in Eastern New Guinea on the other.
The expression ‘ monopolists ’ must, however, be correctly understood. The Amphletts are not a centre of commercial middle-men, constantly busy importing and exporting desirable utilities. Only about once or twice a year, a big expedition comes to their Islands, and every few months they themselves will sail South-East or North and again receive visits from smaller expeditions from one of the neighbours or the other. It is through just such small expeditions that they collect a relat- tively considerable amount of utilities from all surrounding districts, and these they can give to such visitors as need and desire them. Nor would they impose high prices on any such exchange, but they are certainly considered less liberal, less ready to give or to trade and always on the look out for higher return gifts and extras. In their bartering away of the clay pots, they also cannot ask extortionate prices, such as, according to the laws of supply and demand, they could impose on thei neighbours. For, no more than any other natives, can they run counter to customary rules, which regulate this exchange as much as all others. Indeed, considering the great amount of trouble which they have in obtaining the clay, and the high degree of skill necessary to produce the pots, the prices for which they sell them are very low. But here again, their manners over this transaction are distinctly haughty, and they are well aware of their value as potters and distributors of pots to the other natives.
A few more words must be said about their pot making industry as well as about the trade in these islands.
The natives of the Amphletts are exclusive manufacturers of pottery, within a wide radius, They are the only purveyors
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 283
to the Trobrianders, to the inhabitants of the Marshall Bennett [slands, and also, I believe, all the claypots in Woodlark come from the Amphletts.* To the South, they export their pots to Dobu, Du’a’u, and further South as far as Milne Bay. This is not all, however, for although in some of these farther districts the Amphlett pots are used side by side with other ones, they are infinitely superior to any earthenware found in the whole of British New Guinea. Ofa large size, yet extremely thin, they possess great durability, and in form they are =xtremely well shaped and finished (see Plate XLVI).
The best Amphlett pots owe their high quality to the excellence of their material as well as their workmanship. The clay for them has to be imported into the Islands from Yayawana, a quarry on the Northern shore of Fergusson Island, about a day’s journey from the Amphletts. Only a very inferior clay can be found in the islands of Gumasila and Nabwageta, good enough to make small pots, but quite useless for the big ones.
There is a legend, explaining why the good clay cannot be obtained nowadays in the Amphletts. In olden days, two brothers, Torosipupu and Tolikilaki, lived on one of the summits of Gumasila called Tomonumonu. There was plenty of fine clay there at that time. One day Torosipupu went to fish with a trap. He caught a very fine giant clam-shell. When he came back, Tolikilaki said: ‘“‘ O my shell! I shall eat it!’ Torosipupu refused it and answered with a very obscene allusion to the bivalvular mollusc and to the uses he was going to make of it. Tolikilaki asked again; Torosipupu refused. They quarrelled. Tolikilaki then took part of the clay with him, and went to Yayawana on the main island. Torosipupu afterwards took the rest and followed him. What were their further destinies, the legend does not say. But on Gumasila there remained only very poor clay, which is all that can be found there ever since.
Since then, the men have to go about twice yearly to Yayawana in order to bring the clay from which the women afterwards will manufacture the pots. It takes them about a day to reach Yayawana, to which, as it lies to the South West,
* This is the information which I obtained during my short visit to Murua (Woodlark Island), and which was confirmed by the Trobriand Islanders. Professor Seligmann states, also, that the sepulchral pots, found in this jsland come from the Amphletts. Op. cit., p. 731. Compare also pp. 15 and 535.
284 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
they can travel with any of the prevailing winds and return equally well. They remain for a couple of days there, digging the clay, drying it and filling a few vataga baskets with it. I estimate that each canoe carries about two ton weight on its return journey. This will last the women for half a year’s production. The pale, straw-coloured clay is kept under the houses in big troughs made of sides of discarded canoes.
In olden days, before the white man’s advent, the con- ditions were a little more complicated. Only one island, Kwatouto, being on friendly terms with the natives had the freedom of the Northern shore. Whether the other islands used also to fetch the clay from there, doing so armed and ready for attack ; or whether they used to acquire the clay by barter from Kwatouto, I could not definitely establish. The information one receives in the Amphletts is exceedingly unsatisfactory, and my several informants gave contradictory accounts on this point. The fact seems clear in my case, that Kwatouto, then as now, was the source of the best pottery, but that both Gumasila and Nabwageta also always manufactured pots, though perhaps inferior ones. The fourth island, Domdom, never participated in this trade, and up to the present there is not a single woman in Domdom who can shape a pot.
The manufucturing of this article, as said, is exclusively the work of women. They sit in groups of two or three under the houses, surrounded by big clumps of clay and the imple- ments of their craft, and produce in these very shabby and mean conditions, veritable masterpieces of their art. Person- ally I had only the opportunity of seeing groups of very old women at work, although I spent about a month in the Amphletts.
With regard to the technology of pot-making, the method — is that of first roughly moulding the clay into its form and then beating with a spatula and subsequently scraping the walls to the required thinness with a mussel-shell. To give the description in detail, a woman starts first by kneading a certain amount of clay for a long time. Of this material she makes two semi-circular clumps, or several clumps, if a big pot is to be made. These clumps are then placed in a ring, touching one ~ another upon a flat stone or board, so that they form a thick, circular roll (Plate XLIV, top). The woman now begins to — work this roll with both hands, gradually pressing it together, —
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 285
and at the same time bringing it up all round into a slanting wall (see Plate XLIV, bottom). Her left hand works asa rule on the inside, and her right on the outside of this wall; gradually it begins to shape into a semi-spherical dome. On the top of the dome there is a hole, through which the woman thrusts her left hand, working with it on the inside, of the dome (see Plate XLV, top). At first the main movements of her hands were from downward up, flattening out the rolls into thin walls. The traces of her fingers going up and down on the outside leave longitudinal furrows (see details on, Plate XLV, top). Towards the end of this stage her hands move round and round, leaving concentric, horizontal marks on the dome. This is continued until the pot has assumed a good curvature all round.
It seems almost a miracle to see how, in a relatively short time, out of this after all brittle material, and with no imple- ments whatever, a woman will shape a practically faultless hemisphere, often up to a metre in diameter.
After the required shape has been obtained the woman takes a small spatula of light-wood into her right hand and she proceeds to tap the clay gently (see Plate XLV, bottom). This stage lasts a fairly long time, for big pots about an hour. After the dome has been sufficiently worked in this way small pieces of clay are gradually fitted in at the top, closing the orifice, and the top of the dome is beaten again. In the case of small pots the beating is done only after the orifice has been closed. The pot is put with the mat into the sun, where it remains for a day or two to harden. It is then turned round, so that its mouth is now uppermost, and its bottom is carefully placed into a basket. Then, round the rim of the mouth, a flat strip of clay is placed horizontally, turned towards the inside, forming a graceful lip. Three small lumps of clay are put 120° distance from each other near the lip as ornaments, and, with a pointed stick, a design is scratched in round the lip and sometimes down the outside of the body. In this state the pot is again left in the sun for some length of time.
After it has sufficiently hardened to be handled with safety, though it must be done with the utmost care, it is placed on some dried sticks, mouth downwards, supported by stones put between the sticks. It is surrounded with twigs and pieces of wood on its outside, fire is kindled, the sticks below bake it from the inside, and those from above on the outside. The
286 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
final result is a beautiful pot, of a brick red colour when new, though after several uses it becomes completely black. Its shape is not quite semi-spherical ; it is rather half an elipsoid, like the broader half of an egg, cut off in the middle. The whole gives the feeling of perfection in form and of elegance, unparalleled in any South Sea pottery, I know (see Plate XLVI).
These pots in Kiriwinian language kurza, are called by the Amphlett natives kuyana or va’ega. The biggest specimens are about a metre across their mouth, and some sixty centimetres deep ; they are used exclusively for the ceremonial cooking of mona (see Plate XX XV), and are called kwoylamona (in the Amphletts : nokunu). The second size kwoylakalagila (in the Amphletts, nopa’eva) are used for ordinary boiling of yams or taro. Kwoylugwawaga (Amphletts, nobadala), are used for the same purposes but are much smaller. An especial size, kwoylamegwa (Amphletts, nosipoma) are used in sorcery. The smallest ones, which I do not remember ever having seen in the Trobriands though there is a Trobriand word for them, ‘Rwoylakekita, are used for everyday cooking in the Amphletts where they are called va’ega, in the narrower sense of the word.
I have expatiated on this singular and artistic achievement of the natives of the Amphletts, because from all points of view it is important to know the details of a craft so far in advance of any similar achievement within the Melanesian region.
A few words must now be said about trade in the Amphletts. The central position of this little archipelago situated between, on one side, the big, flat, extremely fertile coral islands, which, however, are deprived of many indispensable, natural resources ; and on the other, the rich jungle and varied mineral supplies of the volcanic regions in the d’Entrecasteaux archi- pelago, indicates on which lines this trade would be likely to develop. To this natural inequality between them and their neighbours are added social elements. The Trobrianders are skilful, industrious, and economically highly organised. In this respect, even the Dobuans stand on a lower level, and the other inhabitants of the d’Entrecasteaux much more so.
If we imagine a commercial diagram drawn on the map, we would first of all notice the export in pottery, radiating from the Amphletts as its source. In the inverse direction, flowing
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 287
towards them, would be imports in food such as sago, pigs, coco-nut, betel-nut, taro and yams. An article very important in olden days, which had to be imported into the Amphletts, was the stone for implements coming via the Trobriands from Woodlark Island. These indeed would be traded on by the Amphlettans, as all the d’Entrecasteaux relied, for the most part at least, on the imports from Woodlark, according to information I obtained in the Amphletts. The Amphlett islands further depended on the Trobriands for the following articles : wooden dishes, manufactured in Bwoytalu ; lime-pots manufactured in several villages of Kuboma; three-tiered baskets and folding baskets, made in Luya; ebony lime pots and mussel shells, these latter fished mainly by the village of Kavataria in the lagoon. These articles were paid for, or matched as presents by the following ones : first of all, of course the pots; secondly, turtle-shell earrings, special nose sticks, red ochre, pummice stone and obsidian, all of these obtainable locally. Further, the natives of the Amphletts procured on Fergusson Island, for the Trobrianders, wild banana seeds used for necklaces, strips of rattan used as belts and for lashing, feathers of the cassowary and red parrot, used for dancing decorations, plaited fibre-belts, bamboo and barbed spears.
It may be added that in olden days, the natives in the Amphletts would not sai] freely to all the places on the main island. Each Amphlett village community had a district on the mainland, with which they were on friendly terms and with which they could trade without incurring any danger. Thus, as said above, only the village of Kwatouto, in the southern- most inhabited Amphlett island, was free to go unmolested to the district round Yayawana, from whence they obtained the pale yellow clay, so excellent for pottery. The natives of Nabwageta had a few villages eastwards from Yayawana to deal with, and those of Gumasila went further East still. Domdom natives were never great traders or sailors. The trading conditions in the islands were further complicated by the constant internal quarrels and warfare between the districts. Kwatouto and Domdom on the one side, Gumasila and Nabwageta on the other were allies, and between these two factions there was a constant, smouldering hostility, preventing any development of friendly commercial intercourse, and breaking out now and then into open warfare. This was
288 AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY
the reason why the villages were all perched on high, inacces- sible ledges, or like Gumasila, were built so as to be protected by the sea and reefs from attack.
The influence of the surrounding great districts, that is, of the Trobriands and of Dobu upon the Amphletts neither was nor is merely commercial. From the limited linguistic material collected in the Amphletts, I can only say that their language is related both to that of the Trobriands and of Dobu. Their social organisation resembles closely that of the Trobri- anders with the exception of chieftainship, which is lacking in the Amphletts. In their beliefs as to sorcery, spirits, etc., they seem to be more akin to the Dobuans than to the Trobri- anders. Their canoe magic has come form the Trobriands, but the art of building their canoes is that of Dobu, which as we have seen before is also the one adopted by the Trobrianders. The magic of the Kula, known in the Amphletts, is partly adopted from the Trobriands, and partly from Dobu. There is only one indigenous system of magic which originated in the islands. Long ago there lived a man of the Malasi clan, who had his abode in the rock of Selawaya, which stands out of the jungle, above the big village of Gumasila. This man knew the magic of ayowa, which is the name given to mwasila (Kula magic) in the language of the Amphletts and of Dobu. Some people passed near the stone while it was being recited within it ; they learned it, and handed it over to their descendants.
IV
One more point of importance must be mentioned here, a point bearing upon the intertribal relations in this district. As we saw, some Trobriand people remain sometimes on prolonged visits in the Amphletts. This custom, however, is never reciprocated, and people from the Amphletts never visit for any length of time their Northern neighbours. The same refers to the relations between the Trobriands and the district of Dobu. In discussing the lists of Kula partners of Kouta’uya and Toybayoba, I was told about some of their Southern partners, that they were veyola (maternal kinsmen) of my informant. On further inquiry it appeared that these people were emigrants from the Trobriands, who settled down in Tewara, Sanaroa or the big Dobuan settlements on the North- West shores of Dawson Straits.
gz “J anf]
(392 “d 99§) “SLLATHINV AHL NI AWANADS
DT Xs ALY rel
(zLz ‘d 99g) ‘WIISVWAD AO AOVTTA NIVW AHL NI ONIGNVT
WITX 24V1d
Pratre XLIV
TECHNOLOGY OF POT MAKING (I)
Top picture : the clumps of clay have been put in a circle and joined up, forming a thick, circular roll. Bottom picture : the rollis being worked upwards, caving inallround. (See p. 284.)
Prate XLV
TECHNOLOGY OF POT MAKING (II) .
Top picture : the dome-shaped mass of clay is worked near the hole in the top ; presently th latter will be closed, and, as this is a small pot, only after that is the pot beaten, as shown in th picture below. (See p. 285.) ss
AMPHLETTS—SOCIOLOGY 289
When I asked whether, on the contrary, there were any cases of Dobuans settling in Boyowa, it was emphatically denied that such a thing could happen. And indeed, in the numerous genealogical data which I have collected from all over the district, there is no trace of migration from the South, although frequent migrations occur within the district and some from the Marshall Bennett Islands. In general, all these migrations within the Trobriands show also a marked tendency to move form North to South. Thus, the most aristocratic sub-clan, the Tabalu, originated in the Northernmost village of Laba’i. But now their stronghold is further South in Omarakana, and the members of the same sub-clan are ruling in Olivilevi, and Tukwa’ukwa, that is in the middle of the island. Some of them even migrated as far South as Vakuta, where they established a feeble imitation of chieftainship, never being able to subdue the other natives to any extent. Several sub-clans, now firmly established in the Middle and Southern portions of the island, trace their descent from the North, and in the Amphletts there are also a couple of cases of sub-clans immi- grated from Boyowa.
In contrast to this migration of people from North to South, we have noted the spread of one of the main cultural elements, of the canoe, from South to North. We saw how the nagega, the big, sea-worthy, but heavy and slow canoe has been superseded by the masawa or tadobu, which spread a few genera- tions ago, till it arrived at the island of Kitava. It is more difficult to follow the movements of beliefs. But I have reason to assume that beliefs in sorcery, more especially in the mulukwaust and tauva’u, move from South to North.
In the next Chapter, we shall return to our Sinaketan expedition, in order to move them for a short distance along their routeinto the first settlements of the Dobu speaking people These places will suggest a new theme for a lengthy digression, this time into the mythological subjects and legends connected with the Kula.