CHAPTER XIX

THE INLAND KULA
I
AFTER the somewhat long digression on magic, we can now return once more to the description of the Kula. So far, we have been treating only one incident in it, the overseas expe- dition between Sinaketa and Dobu, and the return visit. But in dealing with this one typical stage we have received a picture of the whole Kula, and we have incidentally learnt all about the fundamentals of the exchange, the magic, the mythology, and the other associated aspects. Now it remains to put the finishing touches to the general picture, that is, to say a few ' words, first about the manner in which it is conducted within a district, and then to follow the exchange on the remaining part of the ring. The exchange within each Kula community has been called the ‘inland Kula.’ This part of the subject I know from personal experience in the Trobriands only. All that will be said therefore in this chapter will apply pri- marily to that part of the ring. As Boyowa, however, is by far the biggest and most densely populated piece of land within the Kula, it is clear that in treating the inland exchange in that island, we treat it in its most developed and typical form.
It has been mentioned before, in Chapter XVI that in April, 1918, To’uluwa had come to Sinaketa in connection with the uvalaku visit of the Dobuans. To’uluwa is the present chief of Omarakana, indeed, the last chief of Kiriwina, for after his death no one will succeed him. His power has been broken by the interference of Government officials and the influence of Mission work. The power of the Trobriand chief lay mainly in his wealth, and this he was able to keep constantly at a high level through the institution of polygamy. Now that he is
464
THE INLAND KULA . 465
forbidden to acquire more wives, though he may keep his old ones; and now that his successor will not be allowed to follow this immemorial custom of polygamy practised by their dynasty, the power of the chief has no basis, and has to a great extent collapsed.
I may add that this interference, inflicted for no compre- hensible purposes, except if it be an exceedingly parochial and narrow-minded application of our sense of morality and propriety, has no legal basis whatever in the regulations of that Colony, and could not be justified either formally or on account of any results it may produce. Indeed, the undermining of old- established authority, of tribal morals and customs tends on the one hand completely to demoralise the natives and to make them unamenable to any law or rule, while on the other hand, by destroying the whole fabric of tribal life, it deprives them of many of their most cherished diversions, ways of enjoying life, and social pleasures. Now once you make life unattractive for a man, whether savage or civilised, you cut the taproot of his vitality. The rapid dying out of native races is, I am deeply convinced, due more to wanton interference with their pleasures and normal occupations, to the marring of their joy of life as they conceive it, than to any other cause. In the Trobriands, for instance, the chief has always been the organiser of all the big, tribal festivities. He received large contributions from the commoners under various legal obligations (see Chap. VI, Division VI) but he gave away all his wealth again in the form of big, ceremonial distributions, of presents at festivities, of food gifts to the partakers in dances, tribal sports and diversions. These were the pleasures in which the natives found real zest, which largely gave meaning to their lives. Nowadays all these pursuits have greatly slackened, because of the lack of concentration of wealth and power in the chief’s hands. He can neither afford to finance the big pastimes of yore, nor has he influence enough to give the same energetic initiative to start them going. After his death, things will be worse still. There are reasons to fear, and even natives express their misgivings, that in a generation or two the Kula will become entirely disorganised.
It is a well-known fact that the resistance and health of a native depend on auto-suggestion more even than is the case with ourselves, though new developments in psychotherapy
466 THE INLAND KULA
seem to indicate that medicine has up till now largely under- rated the general influence of this factor. Even the old ethno- graphic observers, more in Polynesia perhaps than anywhere else, have reported clear, unmistakable instances in which the loss of interest in life and the determination to die brought about death without any other cause. My own experience, though I have no one very striking case to cite, bears this out fully from all sorts of corroborating types of evidence. It is therefore not going beyond what is fully granted by facts, to maintain that a general loss of interest in life, of the jote de vivre, the cutting of all the bonds of intense interest, which bind members of a human community to existence, will result in their giving up the desire to live altogether, and that there- fore they will fall an easy prey to any disease, as well as fail to multiply.
A wise administration of natives would, on the one hand, try to govern through the chief, using his authority along the lines of old law, usage, and custom ; on the other hand it would try to maintain all which really makes life worth living for the natives, for it is the most precious inheritance, which they have from the past ages, and it is no good to try to substitute other interests for those lost. It is easy to hand over one’s vices to a man racially and culturally different; but nothing is as difficult to impart as a keen interest in the sports and amuse- ments of other people. Even from one European nation to another, the last stronghold of national peculiarity can be found in its traditional diversions, and without diversion and amuse- ment a culture and a race cannot survive. The application of a heavy, indeed, crushing machinery of European law and moral regulations, with their various sanctions, simply destroys the whole delicate fabric of tribal authority, eradicating good and bad alike, and leaves nothing but anarchy, bewilderment and ill will.*
* An example of this ill-judged attitude of interference is to be found even in a book written by an exceptionally wellinformed and enlightened missionary, “In Far New Guinea,” by Henry Newton. In describing the feasts and dancing of the natives, he admits these to be a necessity of tribal life: ‘‘ On the whole the feasting and dancing are good ; they give excitement and relaxation to the young men, and tone the drab colours of life.” He himself tells us that, ‘‘ the time comes when the old men stop the dancing. They begin to growl because the gardens are neglected, and they want to know if dancing will give the people food, so the order is given that the drums are to be hung up, and the people settle down to work.’’ Butin spite of Mr. Newton’s recognition of this natural, tribal authority, in spite of the fact that he really admits the views given in our
THE INLAND KULA 467
With a mere show of his former authority, therefore, poor old To’uluwa arrived with a handful of followers at Sinaketa. He still keeps to all the strict observances and onerous duties with which his exalted position was weighted in olden days. Thus, he may not partake of ever so many kinds of food, considered to be unclean for the members of the sub-clan of Tabalu. He may not even touch any defiled objects, that have been in con- tact with unclean food ; he may not eat from dishes or drink out of vessels which have been used previously by other people. When he goes to Sinaketa, for instance, where even the highest chiefs do not keep the taboos, he remains almost on starvation diet ; he can only eat the food which has been brought from his own village, or drink and eat green coco-nut. Of the honours attaching to his position, not many are observed. In olden days, on his approach to a village, a runner would enter first,
text, he cannot refrain from saying: ‘‘ Seriously, however, for the benefit of the people themselves, it would be a good thing if there could be some regulations —if dancing were not allowed after midnight, for while it lasts nothing else is done.—The gardens suffer and it would help the people to learn self-restraint and so strengthen their characters if the dancing could be regulated.” He goes on to admit quite candidly that it would be difficult to enforce such a regulation because “ to the native mind, it would seem that it was the comfort of the white man, not the benefit of the native which was the reason for the regulation.’’ And to my mind also, I am afraid!
The following quotations from a recent scientific work published by the Oxford Press—‘* The Northern d’Entrecasteaux,” by D. Jenness, and the Rev. A. Ballantyne, 1920—are also examples of the dangerous and heedless tampering with the one authority that now binds the natives, the one discipline they can be relied upon to observe—that of their own tribal tradition. The relations of a church member who died, were ‘‘ counselled to drop the harsher elements in their mourning,” and instead of the people being bidden “‘ to observe each jot and tittle of their old, time-honoured rites,’’ they were advised from that day forth to leave off ‘‘ those which had no meaning.’”’ Itis strange to find a trained ethnologist, confessing that old, time-honoured rites have no mean- ing! And one might feel tempted to ask: for whom it is that these customs have no meaning, for the natives or for the writers of the passage quoted ?
The following incident is even more telling. A native headman of an inland village was supposed to keep concealed in his hut a magic pot, the ** greatest ruler of winds, rain, and sunshine,” a pot which had “come down from times naa pane which according to some of the natives ‘‘in the beginning simp Ad was.’’ According to the Authors, the owner of the pot used to descend on the coastal natives and ‘‘ levy tribute,’’ threatening them with the magical powers of the pot if they refused. Some of the coastal natives went to the Missionary and asked him to interfere or get the magistrate to do so. It was arranged they should all go with the Missionary and seize the pot. But on the day “only one man turned up.”” When the Missionary went, how- ever, the natives blocked his path, and only through threats of punishments by the magistrate, were they induced to temporarily leave the village and thus to allow him to seize the pot! A few days later the Missionary accordingly took possession of the pot, which he broke. The Authors go on to say that aes this incident ‘‘ everyone was contented and happy ;”’ except, one might
the natives and those who would see in such occurrences the speedy qastaniba of native culture, and the final disintegration of the race.
468 THE INLAND KULA
?
and in a loud voice cry out ‘‘O Guya’u,” whereupon all the people would stand in readiness, and at the chief’s approach the commoners would throw themselves on the ground, the headman would squat down, and men of rank would bend their heads. Even now, no commoner in the Trobriands would stand erect in the presence of To’uluwa. But he no more announces his arrival in such a loud and proud manner, and he takes his dues as they are given, not demanding them with any show of authority.
II
On that occasion in Sinaketa, I met him again after about two years interval since the time when I lived as his neighbour in Omarakana for some eight months, my tent pitched side by side with his lisiga (chief’s man’s abode). I found himchanged and aged, his tall figure more bent, his large face, with its expression half of benevolence and half of cunning, wrinkled and clouded over. He had some grievances to tell about the offhand treat- ment which had been given to him in Sinaketa, where he had received no necklaces at all, although a few days before the Sinaketans had carried from Kiriwina over 150 pairs of arm- shells. Indeed, the relative change of position between the chiefs of Sinaketa and himself is a permanent sore point with the old chief. All coastal natives, and especially the headman of Sinaketa, have become very rich owing to the introduced industry of pearling, where their services are paid for by the white men in tobacco, betel-nut, and vaygu’a. But To’uluwa, ruined through white man’s influence, receives nothing from pearling, and compared to his Sinaketan inferiors, is a pauper. So after a day or two in Sinaketa, highly displeased, and vowing never to return again, he went back to Omarakana, his residence, and thither we shall follow him.
For Omarakana is still the centre of the Trobriand inland Kula, and, in certain respects, still one of the most important places on the ring. It is probably the only locality where the Kula is or ever was to some extent concentrated in the hands of one man, and it is also the capital of the important district of Kiriwina, which dominates all the inland Kula of the Northern Trobriands, and links up the island of Kitava with the western islands of Kuyleula and Kuyawa. It is also an important link
THE INLAND KULA | 469
between Kitava and Sinaketa, though between these two last mentioned places there are some minor means of communica- tion, as we shall presently see.
Previously, in Chapter III, in the definition of the funda- mentals of the Kula, we saw that the population of the Ring can be divided into what we called Kula communities. These divisions, as we remember, were distinguished by the fact that each one makes overseas expeditions of its own. For example, the Sinaketans, as we saw, make their trips to Dobu in a body, and although the Vakutans may go with them at the same time, the two fleets sail and act as independent units. Again, the whole district of Kiriwina sails to the East, to Kitava, as one fleet. But no Sinaketan canoe could ever form part of it. Another distinguishing characteristic of a Kula community is that the furthest limits of partnership are the same for all its members. Thus for instance, a man from any village in -Kiriwina, provided he is in the Kula, may have a partner anywhere up to the furthest limits of the Sinaketa district in the South, and in any of the villages of the island of Kitava to the East. But beyond that, no Kiriwinian, not even To’uluwa himself, can enter into Kula partnership. There are again certain differences between the manner of conducting trans- actions within a Kula community on the one hand, and between -members of two communities on the other.
: Kiriwina is one of such Kula communities, and Sinaketa is another. Yet the two are not divided by sea, and the style of exchange, when this is carried on between two Kula com- munities which lie in the same district, differs also from that of overseas Kula. Our first task here will be therefore to mark
out clearly the lines of distinction between : 1. The transactions of Kula carried on overseas, from one
district to another.
2. Kula between two distinct but contiguous ‘ Kula com- munities.’
3. Transactions within a ‘ Kula community.’
The facts belonging to the first heading have been described at length, and it will be enough to point out in what the second type differs from the first. Obviously, when two districts on the same island, such as Kiriwina and Sinaketa, make the exchange there is no overseas sailing, no preparation of canoes, no launching, no kabigidoya. Sometimes big joint expeditions
470 THE INLAND KULA
are made by the one community to the other and a great haul of vaygu’a is carried home. As an example of that, we may mention the visit made by the Sinaketans to Kiriwina in the last days of March, 1918, when a great number of mwali were brought, in readiness for the Dobuan uvalaku visit. When such an important visit is made from one Trobriand district to another, some of the Kula magic will be performed, but obviously not all, for there is no lava bundle to be medicated, since no trade is carried ; no dangerous cannibals have to be tamed by the ka’ubana’s rite, for the hosts are, and always have been, friendly neighbours. But some of the beauty magic, and the enticing formula over betel nut would be recited to obtain as many valuables as possible. There is nothing corresponding to uvalaku in such big visits between neighbouring districts, - though I think that they would be held only in connection with some uvalaku visit from another part of the ring to one of the two districts, as was the case in the example quoted, that is the » Sinaketan visit to Kiriwina (Chapter XVI). Of course there is no associated trade on such expeditions, for there is very little to exchange between Sinaketa and Kiriwina, and what there is, is done independently, in a regular manner all the year round. Partnership between people of such two Kula communities is very much the same as within one of them. It obtains between people speaking the same language, having the same customs and institutions, many of whom are united by bonds of actual kinship or relationship-in-law. For, as has been mentioned already, marriages between Sinaketa and Kiriwina take place frequently, especially between natives of high rank. The rule is, in such cases, that a man of Sinaketa marries a woman of Kiriwina.
III
Let us pass now to the relation between categories 2 and 3, that is between Kula of two contiguous ‘ Kula communities,’ and the Kula within one of them. First of all, in the inland Kula within the same community, there never take place big, wholesale transactions. The circulation of vaygu’a consists of individual exchanges, sometimes more frequent, that is, when-
ever an overseas expedition has come home laden with many valuables, sometimes done at long intervals. No magic is
THE INLAND KULA 471
performed in this type of Kula, and though there is a certain amount of ceremony accompanying each gift, there are no big, public gatherings. A concrete description of an actual case may serve best to illustrate these general statements.
During the eight months I stayed in Omarakana in 1915- 1916, I had the opportunity of watching many cases of inland Kula, as there was a constant come and go between Kiriwina and Kitava, and subsequent to each influx of armshells from the East, a series of exchanges took place. In the month of November, To’uluwa went with his canoe on a small expe- dition across the sea to Kitava, and brought back a good haul of mwalt (armshells). He arrived on an evening on the beach of Kaulukuba, and word was sent over to the village that next day he would come up with his trophies. In the morning, blows of conch-shell, heard from the distance, announced the approach of the returning party, and soon, preceded by one of his small sons carrying the conch-shell, To’uluwa made his appearance followed by his companions. Each man carried a few pairs which he had obtained, whilst the chief’s share was brought in on a stick, hanging down in a chaplet (see Plate LX).
The people in the village sat before their huts, and according to native custom, there was no special concourse to meet the chief, nor any outward signs of excitement. The chief went straight to one of his bulaviyaka, that is, one of his wives’ houses, and sat on the platform before it, waiting for some food to come. That would be the place where he would seat himself, if he wanted just to have a domestic chat with some of his wives and children. Had any strangers been there, he would have received them at his place of official reception, in front of his istga, the extremely large and high chief’s house, standing in the inner row of yam houses, and facing the main place, the baku (see Plate II). On that occasion he went to the hut of Kadamwasila, his favourite wife, the mother of four sons and one daughter. She is quite old now, but she was the first wife married by To’uluwa himself, that is, not inherited, and there is an unmistakable attachment and affection between the two,evennow. Though the chief has several much younger and one or two really fine looking wives, he is usually to be found talking and taking his food with Kadamwasila. He has also a few older wives, whom, according to the custom, he inherited
472 THE INLAND KULA
from his predecessor, in that case, his elder brother. The eldest of them, Bokuyoba, the Dean of the Body of the chief's wives, has been twice inherited; she is now a source of income— —for her male kinsmen have to supply yams to the chief— and an object of veneration, and is now even relieved of the duty of cooking the chief’s food.
To’uluwa sat, ate, and talked about his journey to myself and some of the village elders assembled there. He spoke of the amount of mwali at present in Kitava, told us from whom and how he obtained those at which we were then looking, naming the most important ones, and giving bits of their histories. He commented on the state of gardens in Kitava, which in one respect, in the production of the big yams (kuvt) are the admiration of all the surrounding districts. He spoke also about future Kula arrangements, expeditions to arrive from the East in Kiriwina, and of his own planned movements.
On the afternoon of the same day, people from other villages began to assemble, partly to hear the news of the chief’s expe- dition, partly in order to find out what they could obtain themselves from him. Headmen from all the dependent villages sat in one group round the chief, who now had moved to the official reception ground, in front of his lisiga. Their followers, in company with the chief’s henchmen, and other inhabitants of Omarakana, squatted all over the baku (central place), engaged in conversation. The talk in each group was of the same subjects, and did not differ much from the conver- sation, I had heard from the chief on his arrival. The newly acquired armshells were handed round, admired, named, and the manner of their acquisition described.
Next day, several soulava (spondylus shel! necklaces) were brought to Omarakana by the various men from neighbouring villages to the West, and ceremonially offered to To’uluwa (see Plates LXI, LXII, and Frontispiece). This was, in each case
a vaga (opening gift), for which the giver expected to receive his - |
yotile (clinching gift) at once from the store of mwali. In this case we see the influence of chieftainship in the relation between Kula partners. In the inland Kula of Kiriwina, all gifts would be brought to To’uluwa, and he would never have to fetch or carry his presents. Moreover, he would always be given and never give the opening gift (vaga) ; while his gift
THE INLAND KULA 473
2
- would invariably be a yotsle. So that the chief sometimes owes a Kula gift to a commoner, but a commoner never owes a gift to achief. The difference between the rules of procedure here and those of an uvalaku overseas expedition is clear: ina competitive overseas expedition, valuables for exchange are never carried by the visiting party, who only receive gifts and bring them back home; in the inland Kula, the determining factor is the relative social position of the two partners. Gifts are brought to the man of superior by the man of inferior rank, and the latter has also to initiate the exchange.
The following entry is quoted literally from my notes, made in Omarakana, on November the 13th, 1915. ‘““ This morning, the headman of Wagaluma brought a bagido’u (fine necklace). At the entrance to the village (it is Omarakana), they (the party) halted, blew the conch shell, put themselves in order. Then, the conch shell blower went ahead, the men of highest rank took the stick with the bagido’u, a boy carrying the heavy wooden bell pendant on a kaboma (wooden dish).’’ This requires a commentary. The ceremonial way of carrying the spondylus shell necklaces is by attaching each end to a stick, so that the necklace hangs down with the pendant at its lowest point (see Frontispiece and Pl. LXI and LXII). In the case of very long and fine necklaces, in which the pendant is accordingly big and heavy, while the actual necklace is thin and fragile, the pendant has to be taken off and carried apart. Resuming the narrative :—‘‘ The headman approached To’uluwa and said: ‘ Agukuleya, tkanawo; lagayla lamaye; yoku kayne gala mwalt.’ This he said in thrusting the stick into the thatch of the chief’s house.’’ The words literally mean: ‘My kuleya (food left over), take it ; I brought it to-day ; have you perhaps no armshells ?’ The expression ‘ food left over,’ applied to the gift was a depreciating term, meaning something which is an overflow or unwanted scrap. Thus he was ironically depre- ciating his gift, and at the same time implying that much wealth still remained in his possession. By this, in an oblique manner, he bragged about his own riches, and with the last phrase, expressing doubt as to whether To’uluwa had any armshells, he threw a taunt at the chief. This time the gift was returned immediately by a fine pair of armshells.
It was in connection with the same expedition that the little exchange between two of the chief’s wives took place,
474 THE INLAND KULA
mentioned before (in Chapter XI, Division II, under 4) and one or two more domestic Kula acts were performed, a son of To’uluwa offering him a necklace (see Plates LXI and LXII) and receiving a pair of armshells afterwards. Many more transactions took place in those two days or so; sounds of conch shells were heard on all sides as they were blown first in the village from which the men started, then on the way, then at the entrance to Omarakana, and finally at the moment of giving. Again, after some time another blast announced the return gift by To’uluwa, and the receding sounds of the conch marked the stages of the going home of the party. To’uluwa himself never receives a gift with his own hands; it is always hung up in his house or platform, and then somebody of his household takes charge of it; but the commoner receives the armshell himself from the hands of the chief. There was much life and movement in the village during this time of concentrated exchange ; parties came and went with vaygu’a, others arrived as mere spectators, and the place was always full of a gazing crowd. The soft sounds of the conch shell, so characteristic of all South Sea experiences, gave a special flavour to the festive and ceremonial atmosphere of those days.
Not all the armshells brought from Kitava were thus at once given away. Some of them were kept for the purposes of more distant Kula; or to be given on some future, special — occasion when a present had to be handed over in association with some ceremony. In the inland Kula, there is always an outbreak of transactions whenever a big quantity of valuables is imported into the district. And afterwards, sporadic trans- actions happen now and then. For the minor partners who had received armshells from To’uluwa would not all of them keep them for any length of time, but part of them would be sooner or later passed on in inland transactions. But, however these valuables might spread over the district, they would be always available when an expedition from another Kula com- munity would come and claim them. When the party from Sinaketa came in March, 1918, to Omarakana, all those who owned armshells would either come to the capital or else be visited in their villages by their Sinaketan partners. Of the 154 or so armshells obtained in Kiriwina on that occasion, only thirty came from To’uluwa himself, and fifty from Omarakana —
i
THE INLAND KULA 475
altogether, while the rest were given from other villages, in the following proportions :
Liluta Pas Be wis 14 Osapola os ers mis 14 Mtawa re yi ns 6 Kurokaywa ae wr 15 Omarakana (To’uluwa) ee 30 Omarakana (other men) ate 20 Yalumugwa AE oye 14 Kasana’i ea or & 16 Other villages a A 25
Thus the inner Kula does not affect the flow of the main | stream, and, however, the valuables might change hands within the ‘ Kula community,’ it matters little for the outside flow.
IV
It will be necessary to give a more detailed account of the actual conditions obtaining in Boyowa wth regard to the limits of the various Kula communities in that district. Looking at Map IV, p. 50, we see there the boundaries of Kiriwina, which is the easternmost Kula community in the Northern part of the islands. To the west of it the provinces of Tilataula, Kuboma, and Kulumata form another Kula community, or, it would be more correct to say, some of the men in these districts make the inland Kula with members of neighbouring communities. But these three provinces do not form as a whole a Kulacommunity. In the first place, many villages are quite outside the Kula, that is, not even their headmen belong to the inter-tribal exchange. Remarkably enough, all the big industrial centres, such as Bwoytalu, Luya, Yalaka, Kadukway- kela, Buduwaylaka, do not take part in the Kula. An inter- esting myth localised in Yalaka tells how the inhabitants of that village, prevented by custom from seeing the world on Kula expeditions, attempted to erect a high pillar reaching to heaven, so as to find a field for their adventures in the skies. Unfortunately, it fell down, and only one man remained above, who is now responsible for thunder and lightning.
476 THE INLAND KULA
Another important omission in the Kula is that of the Northern villages of Laba’i, Kaybola, Lu’ebila, Idaleaka, Kapwani and Yuwada. If we remember that Laba’i is the very centre of Kiriwinian mythology, that there lies the very hole out of which the original ancestors of the four clans emerged from underground, that the highest chiefs of Kiriwina trace their descent from Laba’i, this omission appears all the more remarkable and mysterious.
Thus the whole Western half of the Northern Trobriands forms a unit of sorts in the chain of Kula communities, but it cannot be considered as a fully fledged one, for only sporadic individuals belong to it, and again, that district as a whole, or even individual canoes from it, never take part in any over- seas Kula expedition. The village of Kavataria makes big over- ~ seas sailings to the Western d’Entrecasteaux Islands. Though these expeditions really have nothing to do with the Kula we shall say a few words about this in the next chapter but one. ~
Passing now to the West, we find the island of Kayleula, which, together with two or three smaller islands, to its South, Kuyawa, Manuwata, and Nubiyam, form a ‘ Kula com- munity’ of itsown. This community is again slightly anomal- ous, for they make Kula only on a small scale, on the one hand with the chiefs and headmen of Kiriwina, and of the North- Western district of Boyowa, and on the other hand with the Amphletts, but never with Dobu. They also used to make long and perilous trips to the Western d’Entrecasteaux, sailing further West and for longer distances than the natives of Kavataria.
The main Kula communities in the South of Boyowa, Sinaketa and Vakuta, have been described already, and sufficiently defined in the previous chapters. Sinaketa is the centre for inland Kula of the South, which, though on a smaller scale than the inland Kula of the North, still unites half-a-dozen villages round Sinaketa. That village also carries on Kula with three coastal villages in the East, Okayaulo, Bwaga, and’ Kumilabwaga, who link it up with Kitava, to where they make journeys from time to time. These villages form again the sort of imperfect ‘ Kula community,’ or perhaps one on a very small scale, for they would never have an uvalaku of their own, and the amount of transactions which pass through them is very small. Another such small community, independent as regards
THE INLAND KULA 477
Kula, is the village of Wawela. The district of Luba, which sometimes joins with Kiriwina in carrying on a big expedition, also sometimes joins with Wawela on small expeditions. Such nondescript or intermediate phenomena of transition are always to be found in studying the life of native races, where most social rules have not got the same precision as with us. There is among them neither any strong, psychological tendency to consistent thinking, nor are the local peculiarities and excep- tions rubbed off by the influence of example or competition.
I cannot say very much about the inland Kula in other regions besides the Trobriands. I have seen it done in Woodlark Island, at the very beginning of my work among the Northern Massim, and that was the first time that I came across any of the symptoms of the Kula. Early in 1915, in the village of Dikoyas, I heard conch shells blown, there was a general commotion in the village, and I saw the presentation of a large bagido’u. I, of course, inquired about the meaning of the custom, and was told that this is one of the exchanges of presents made when visiting friends. At that time I had no inkling that I had been a witness of a detailed manifestation, of what I subsequently found out was Kula. On the whole, however, I have been told by natives from Kitava and Gawa, later on whilst working in the Trobriands, that the customs of Kula exchange there are identical with those obtaining in Kiriwina. And the same I was told is the case in Dobu. It must be realised, however, that the inland Kula must be some- what different ina community where, asin Kitava, for instance, the strands of the Kula all come together in a small space, and the stream of valuables, which has been flowing through the broad area of the Trobriands, there concentrates into three small villages. If we estimate the inhabitants of the Trobriands with Vakuta at up to ten thousand, while those of Kitava at no more than five hundred, there will be about twenty times as many valuables per head of inhabitants in Kitava as com- pared to the Trobriands.
Another such place of concentration is the island of Tubetube, and I think one or two places in Woodlark Island, where the village of Yanabwa is said to be an independent link in the chain, through which every article has to pass. But this brings us already to the Eastern Kula, which will form the - subject of the next chapter.
CuHaptER XX EXPEDITIONS BETWEEN KIRIWINA AND KITAVA
I
THE subject of which this book treats and the material at our disposal are nearly exhausted. In describing the Southern branch of the Kula (between Sinaketa and Dobu) I entered into the details of its rules and associated aspects, and almost all that was said there refers to the Kula asa whole. In speaking of the N.E. branch of the Kula, which I am now about to describe, there will not therefore be very much new to tell. All the general rules of exchange and types of behaviour are the same as those previously defined. Here we have also big uvalaku expeditions and small, non-ceremonial sailings. The type of partnership between Kiriwinians and Kitavans is the same here, as the one obtaining within the Trobriands, and described in the last chapter. For the natives of the Eastern islands, from Kitava to Woodlark, have the same social organ- isation and the same culture as the Trobrianders, and speak the same language with dialectical differences only. Never any but friendly relations have obtained between them and many people are united by bonds of real kinship across the seas, for there have been migrations between the districts, and marriages are also not infrequent. Thus the general relations between overseas partners are different here from those between Sinaketa and Dobu. The visiting is not associated with any deep apprehensions, there is no ka’ubana’s (danger magic), and the relations between the visitors and hosts are much more free » and easy andintimate. The rest of the Kula magic (except the ka’ubana’t) is identical with that in the South, and indeed much of it, as used all over Boyowa, has been received from the Kitavans. Many of the preliminary customs and arrangements of the Kula, the preparation of the canoes, ceremonial launching and kabigidoya are the same here. In fact, the launching
478
KIRIWINA AND KITAVA — 479
described in Chapter VI was the one I saw on the beach of Omarakana.
On the actual expeditions, much of the ceremonial and all the rules of the Kula gifts, as well as of the pavz and talo’1, the initial and farewell presents, are the same as in the South- Western branch of the Kula. The best plan will be to tell the story of a typical uvalaku expedition from Kiriwina to Kitava, noting the similarities and emphasising the differences, while one or two points of divergence will claim our special attention. There is a small, but interesting incident called youlawada, a custom which allows a visiting party to attack and damage the house ornaments of a man, to whom they bringa gift. Another important speciality of this Eastern Kula is the association of a mortuary feast called so’i with particularly abundant distri- butions of vaygu’a.
I had opportunities of collecting notes about the North- Eastern Kula and of making observations during my residence in Omarakana, in I915-1916. I saw several expeditions from Kitava arrive on the beach, andcamp fora fewdays. To’uluwa went twice to Kitava, and his return from one of these visits has been described in the last chapter. He also once started for an expedition there, of which I was a member. There was a change of wind, some time in September, and with the North wind which we hoped would last for a few hours, it would have been possible to cross to Kitava and to return at our pleasure with the prevailing South-Easterly. Half-way to our goal, the wind changed and we had to return, to my great disappoint- ment, though this gave me a good example of the entire depend- ence of the natives on the weather. Unfortunately, To’uluwa got it into his head that I had brought him bad luck, and so when he planned his next trip, I was not taken into his con- fidence or allowed to form one of the party. Two years later, when I lived in Oburaka, about half-way between the Northern and Southernmost end of Boyowa, several expeditions from Kitava visited Wawela, a village lying across on the other side of the island, which here is no more than a mile and a half- wide; and one or two expeditions left from Wawela for Kitava. The only big expedition which came under my notice was the uvalaku which was to leave some time in April or May, 1916, from Kiriwina to the East. I saw only the preparatory stages, of which the launching was described in Chapter VII.
480 KIRIWINA AND KITAVA
Let us imagine that we follow the course of this Kiriwinian uvalaku. The first general intimation that it would take place, came after one of the visits which To’ulawa made to Kitava. He had heard there that a considerable quantity of armshells was soon to come to the island, for, as we shall see by the end of this Chapter, such big, concerted movements of valuables along the ring take place from time to time. To’ulawa then and there made arrangements with his chief partner, Kwaywaya, to make an uvalaku, which was to be the means of carrying on the big movement of the mwali. On his return to Omarakana, when the headmen of the other Kin- winian villages assembled, the plans of the uvalaku were talked © over and details arranged. Even in olden days, before the chief’s power was undermined, though he used to take the initiative, and give decisions in important matters, he had to put the case before the other headmen, and listen to what they had to say. Their opinions on the occasion of which we are speaking, would hardly ever be in contradiction to his wishes, and it was decided without much discussion to make the uvalaku in about six months’ time. Soon after, the rebuilding or refitting of the canoes began, in the manner previously described. The only slight difference in the preparations between Kiriwina and Sinaketa lies in the preliminary trade. The Kiriwinians have to go inland to the industrial districts of Kuboma, and they go there every man on his own account, to acquire the articles needed.
It will be best to say here at once all that is necessary about the trade between Kiriwina and Kitava. As these two districts are geologically and in other respects much more similar to one another than Sinaketa and Dobu are, the trade is not of such vital importance, with one notable exception, as we shall see. The articles of subsidiary trade, which a Kiri- winian expedition would carry with them to Kitava, are the following :—wooden combs; various classes of lime pots; — armlets, plaited of fern fibre; turtle-shell earrings ; mussel shell; coils of lashing creeper (wayugo) ; plaited fern belts, made originally in the d’Entrecasteaux. Of these articles, the most important are probably the mussel shells, used for scraping and as knives, the various kinds of lime pots, which are a speciality of Kuboma, and last, but not least, the wayugo. I am not quite certain as. to whether this creeper is not to be
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Pirate LXI
BRINGING IN A SOQULAVA
The party, the second man blowing the conch shell and the leader carrying the necklace on a stick, approach the chief’s house. (See Pp. 472.)
Puate LXII
OFFERING THE SOULAVA
The necklace is thrust on its stick into the chief’s house. represent an act of purely domestic Kula, one of the so necklace. Hence the scanty attendance of the general public,
Both this plate and the foregoing one ns of To’uluwa offering his father a
(See p. 472.)
KIRIWINA AND KITAVA 481
found in Kitava, but as it grows only on marshy soil, it is hardly probable that it would thrive on a high, raised, coral island. In that case, the creeper is certainly the most indispensable of all the trade articles imported into Kitava from the Trobriands.
The Trobrianders import from the smaller islands a class of grass skirt made of coco-nut leaves ; exceptionally well finished urn-shaped baskets ; small hand-baskets ; specially bleached pandanus mats ; ornaments made of fragments of conus shell ; certain classes of cowrie shell, used for ornamenting belts ; ebony lime spatule; ebony walking staves; sword-clubs carved in ebony; and an aromatic black paint, made of charred sandal wood. None of these articles is of vital impor- tance, as all of them, though perhaps in slightly different or even inferior quality, are manufactured or found in the Trobriands.
There was one article, however, which, in the olden days, was of surpassing utility to the Trobriand natives, and which they could obtain only from Kitava, though it came originally from further East, from Murua (Woodlark Island). These were the kukumali, or roughly shaped pieces of green-stone, which were then polished in the Trobriands, and in this state used as stone implements, while the biggest of them, very large and thin and well polished all over, became a specially important class of vaygu’a (articles of high value). Although the practical use of stone implements has naturally been done away with by the introduction of steel and iron, the beku (valuable axe blades) have still an undiminished, indeed, an increased value, as the white traders have to use them for purchasing pearls from the natives. It is important to note that although all the raw material for these stone implements and valuables had to be imported from Kitava, the finished valuables were and are re-exported again, as Kiriwina is still the main polishing district.
As to the manner in which the trade was done between the Kiriwinians and Kitavans, all that has been said previously on the subject of inter-tribal trade holds good ; part of the goods carried were given as presents, part of them were exchanged with non-partners, some were gifts received from the partners on leaving.
482 KIRIWINA AND KITAVA II
Returning to To’ulawa and his companions, as time went on there was more and more stir in the villages. As usually, all sorts of ambitious plans were framed, and the youthful members of the party hoped that they would reach Muyuwa (or Murua, Woodlark Island) where Kula’ was not done, but where Kiriwinian parties sometimes went in order to witness certain festivities. On the subject of Muyuwa, Bagido’u, the elderly heir apparent of Omarakana, who however, as said in the previous chapter, will never succeed his uncle, had to tell his own experiences. As a small boy, he sailed there with one of the big chiefs of Omarakana, his maternal grandfather. They went to Suloga, the place where the green stone was quarried.
“ There,’’ spoke Bagido’u, “‘ there was a big dubwadebula (grotto or rock shelf). The members of the Lukulabuta clan (this clan is called Kulutalu in Muyuwa) of Suloga, were the tol (masters, owners) of this dubwadebula, and could quarry the stone. They knew some megwa (magic) ; they charmed their axeblades, and hit the walls of the dubwadebula. The kukumali (pieces of stone) fell down. When the men of Boyowa came to Suloga, they gave part (presents) to the Lukulabuta men of Suloga. They gave them paya (turtle shell), Rwast (armlets), sinata (combs). Then, the Suloga men would show us the kukumalt, and tell us: ‘ Take them with you, take plenty.’ Good kukumali, which could be made into a beku (big wealth-blades) we would pay for; we would give our vaygu’a (valuables) in exchange. At parting, they would give us more kukumali as talo’s (farewell gift).”’
It must be remembered, in comment on this narrative, that when Bagido’u went to Suloga, some thirty or forty years ago, the iron and steel had already long before rendered the small kukumali quite useless and worthless to the natives, while the big kukumal: had still their full value, as material for the large blades which serve as tokens of wealth. Hence, the big ones had still to be paid for, and hence also the generous invitation to take as many of the small ones, as they liked, an invitation of which the visitors, with corresponding delicacy, refused to avail themselves.*
* I have not seen the site of Suloga myself. Interesting details are to be found in ‘‘ The Melanesians ” of Professor Seligman, who visited the spot himself, and who has collected a number of specimens in the locality, as well as many data about the production of the blades. Op, cit., pp. 530-533.
KIRIWINA AND KITAVA 483
Another hero of the occasion was old Ibena, one of the Tabalu (members of the highest rank) of Kasana’i, the sister village of Omarakana. He has spent a long time on the island of Iwa, and knew the myths and magic of the Eastern archi- pelago very well. He would sit down and tell for hours various stories of famous Kula expeditions, of mythological incidents, and of the peculiar customs of the Eastern islands, It was from him that I first obtained my information about the mulukwausi and their customs, about shipwreck and the means of saving the party, about the love magic of Iwa, and many other facts, which only a man of cosmopolitan experience and culture, like Ibena, would know and understand thoroughly. He was a good informant, eager to instruct and to display his wisdom and knowledge, and not devoid of imagination ; of the licentious and libidinous women of Kaytalugi (see Chapter X) and of what a man has to suffer there, he would speak as if he had been there himself. At this time, he was specially loquacious about the Kula, and associated customs, inspired as he was by the hope of re-visiting his old haunts, and by the admiration and reverence shown to him by his listeners, myself included.
The other members of the audience were most interested in his accounts of how they make gardens in Kitava, Iwa and Gawa; of the special dances performed there, of the techni- calities of Kula, and of the great efficiency of the Iwan love magic.
At that time, I was able to obtain more information about the Kula, and that more easily and in a shorter while, than I had, with strenuous efforts, for months before. It is by taking advantage of such epochs, when the interest of the natives is centred round a certain subject, that ethnographic evidence can be collected in the easiest and most reliable manner. Natives will willingly state customs and rules, and they will also accurately and with interest follow up concrete cases. Here, for instance, they would trace the way in which a given pair of armshells had passed through the hands of several individuals, and was now supposed to have come round again to Kitava—and in such a way one receives from the natives definite ethnographic documents, realities of thought, and details of belief, instead of forced artificial verbiage.
484 KIRIWINA AND KITAVA
I saw the proceedings as far as the ceremonial launching of the chiefs’ canoes in Kasana’i and Omarakana (cf. Chapter VI), when the natives assembled in big numbers, and various festivi- ties took place. Afterwards when everything was ready for sailing, a similar crowd gathered on the beach, though less numerous than the previous one, for only the neighbouring villages were there instead of the whole district. The chief addressed the crowd, enjoining strict taboos on strangers entering the village while the men were away. Such taboos, on the surface at least, are very carefully kept, as I had oppor- tunities to observe during the two previous absences of To’uluwa. Early in the evening, everybody retired into his or her house, the outside fires were extinguished and when I walked through the village, it was quite deserted and except for a few old men specially keeping watch, no one was to be seen. Strangers would be careful not to pass even through the outskirts of the village after sunset, and would take another road to avoid the grove of Omarakana.
Even men from the sister-village of Kasana’i were excluded from entering the capital, and on one occasion when two or three of them wanted to visit their friends, they were stopped from doing it by some of the old men, with a considerable display of indignation and authority. As it happened, a day or two afterwards, but still while the Kula party were away, one of the favourite sons of To’uluwa, called Nabwasu’a who had not gone on the expedition, was caught in flagrante delicto of adultery with the youngest wife of the very old chief of Kasana’i. The people of the latter village were highly incensed, not without an admixture of malicious amusement. One of these who had been expelled two nights before from Omarakana took a conch shell and with its blast announced to the wide world the shame and scandal of Omarakana. As a conch shell is blown only on very important and ceremonial occasion, this was a slap in the face of the supposedly virtuous community, and a reproach of its hypocrisy. A man of Kasana’i, speaking in a loud vocie, addressed the people of Omarakana :—
“You don’t allow us to enter your village ; you call us adulterous (tokaylast) ; but we wanted only to go and visit our friends. And look here, Nabwasu’a committed adultery in our village ! ”’
KIRIWINA AND KITAVA 485
The uvalaku party, to whom we now return, would cross the sea in a few hours and arrive in-Kitava. Their manner of sailing, the arrangement of men in the canoe, the taboos of sailing are the same as in Sinaketa. My knowledge of their canoe magic is much smaller than of that in Southern Boyowa, but I think they have got far fewer rites. The sailing on these seas is on the whole easier, for there are fewer reefs, and the two prevailing winds would either bring them towards the Eastern islands, or push them back towards the long coast of Boyowa. The natives of Kiriwina are on the other hand far less expert sailors than the Sinaketans.
They have the same beliefs about the dangers at sea, especi- ally about the participation of the flying witches in shipwreck. The history of such a calamity and the means of escape from it, given in one of the foregoing chapters (Chapter X), refers to these seas, as well as to the sea-arm of Pilolu.
These natives, as well as the Southern Boyowans, feel and appreciate the romance of sailing ; they are visibly excited at the idea of an expedition, they enjoy even the sight of the open sea on the Eastern coast beyond the raybwag (coral ridge), and often walk there on mere pleasure parties. The Eastern coast is much finer than the beach of the Lagoon ; steep, dark rocks alternate there with fine, sandy beaches, the tall jungle spreading over the higher and lower parts of the shore. The sailing to Kitava does not present, however, the same contrasts as an expedition to the d’Entrecasteaux Islands from Southern Boyowa. The natives remain still in the world of raised coral islands, which they know from their own home. Even the island of Muyuwa (or Murua, Woodlark Island) where I spent a short time, does not present such a definite contrast in landscape as that between the Trobriands and the Koya. I do not know from personal experience the Marshall Bennett Islands, but from an excellent description given by Professor Seligman, they seem to be good specimens of small raised atolls.*
With regard to magic, the most important initial rites over the lilava and sulumwoya are done in the village by the toliwaga (compare above, Chapter VII). The magic over the four coco-nutsin the canoe is not performed in Kiriwina. On arrival at the beach in Kitava, all the rites of beauty magic, as
* Cf. Op. cit., pp. 670-672.
486 KIRIWINA AND KITAVA
well as the magic over the conch shell are recited in a manner identical to that in Sarubwoyna (Chapter XIII). Here, how- ever, the natives have to make the last stage of the journey on foot.
The party, headed by a small boy, probably a youngest son of the toliwaga, after whom the chief and the others follow, would march towards the village which is situated beyond the elevated ridge. When soulava (necklaces) are brought by the party—which, it must be remembered is never the case on an uvalaku—they would be carried ceremonially on sticks by somé men following the chief. In that case, that is when the party are bringing Kula gifts—the youlawada ceremony is per- formed. On entering the village, the party march on briskly without looking to right or left, and, whilst the boy blows frantically the conch shell, and all the men in the party emit the intermittent ceremonial scream called tilaykiki, others throw stones and spears at the kavalapu, the ornamental carved and painted boards running in a Gothic arch round the eaves of a chief's house or yam house. Almost all the kavalapu in the Eastern villages are slightly injured, that of To uluwa having one of its ends knocked off. The damage is not repaired, as it is a mark of distinction.
This custom is not known in the Kula between Sinaketa and Dobu or Sinaketa and Kiriwina. It begins on the Eastern shore of the Trobriands, and is carried on as far as Tubetube where it stops again, for it is not practised in Wari (Teste Island) or on the portion of the Kula between Tubetube and Dobu. I myself never saw it practised in the Trobriands, but I saw a similar custom among the Massim of the South Coast of New Guinea. At a so’t feast which I witnessed in three different villages as it progressed from one to the other, the party who brought in gifts of pigs to a man attempted to do some damage to his trees or his house. A pig is always slung by its legs on a long, stout pole, dangling head downwards (see Plates V and LXIII): with this pole the natives would ram a young coco-nut or betel-nut palm or a fruit tree and if not stopped by the owners would break or uproot it, the pig squealing and the women of the damaged party screaming in unison. Again, a party entering a village with gifts to one of the inhabitants, would throw miniature spears at his house. A distinct show of fierceness and hostility is displayed on both sides by the
KIRIWINA AND KITAVA 487
natives on such occasions, Although the somewhat histrionic attack, and the slight but real damage to property were sanctioned by tribal usage, not infrequently among the Southern Massim serious quarrels and scrimmages were started by it. This custom has been observed by Professor Seligman among the natives of Bartle Bay. ‘“‘ As a man passed the house, they speared the wall with the branches they had been waving, and left them stuck in the walls.” And again: “. . . the people bringing them (the pigs) in, carried branches of trees or pieces of stick with a wisp of grass tied to the end, and with these speared the house of the man to whom the pigs were given.’’*
When we remember what has been said about the style in which all gifts are given; that is, so to speak, thrown down fiercely and almost contemptuously by the giver ; when we remember the taunts with which gifts are often accom- panied, as well as the manner in which they are received, the youlawada custom appears only as an exaggerated form of this manner of giving, fixed into a definite ceremonial. It is interesting from this point of view to note that the youlawada is only done in association with vaga (initial gifts) and not with the yottle {return gifts).
The Kiriwinian party, after having paid their pre- liminary ceremonial visit in the village, given their gifts, both of the Kula and of the pari type, and had a long chat with their partners and friends, return in the evening to the beach, where they camp near their canoes. Sometimes temporary huts are erected, sometimes in fine weather the natives sleep under mats on the sand beach. Food is brought to them from the village by young, unmarried girls, who very often on that occasion arrange their intrigues with the visitors. The party will remain for a few days paying calls to the other villages of the island, talking, inspecting the gardens and hoping for more Kula presents. The food of Kitava is not tabooed to the chiefs, as the Kitavans abstain from the worst abominations. At parting the visitors receive their talo’i gifts which are . brought down to their canoes.
The visits are returned by the Kitavans in very much the same manner. They camp on the sand beaches of the Eastern Coast. When weather-bound they erect temporary habitations,
* Op. cit., description of the Walaga feast, pp. 594-603.
488 KIRIWINA AND KITAVA
and I have seen whole families, men, women, and children living for days on some of the Eastern shores. For it is the custom of the men of Kitava to carry their women and small children on their trips. The Kiriwinians take sometimes un- married girls, but they would never take their wives and small children, whilst in the South no Sinaketan women at all go on a Kula voyage however small and unimportant a one it may be. From big uvalaku expeditions, women are excluded in all the districts.
It has been mentioned in the last chapter that Kitava enjoys a privileged position in the Ring, for every single piece of valuables has to pass through it. The island of Kitava is a ‘Kulacommunity’ initself. Allits neighbours to the West, the Kula communities of Kiriwina, Luba, Wawela, Southern Boyowa (that is, the villages of Okayyaulo, Bwaga and Kumilabwaga) cannot skip Kitava-when they are exchanging, and the same refers to the Kitavan neighbours in the East. In other words, a man from the Eastern islands beyond Kitava, if he wants to pass an armshell westwards, has to give it to a Kitava man, and may not give it directly to some one beyond. The islands East of Kitava, lwa, Gawa, and Kwayawata form one community. This is shown.on Map V, where each ‘ Kula community ’ is represented by one circle. The Kula stream, after having concentrated in Kitava, spreads out again, but by no means as broadly as when it runs to the Westward, and overflows over the broad area of the Trobriands. Another point, in which the Kula of Kitava differs from that of Sinaketa or Kiriwina, a point on which I have touched already once before (in Chapter XIII, Division I) is that the small island has to make overseas exchanges on both sides. As we saw, the Sinaketans carry on big expeditions and make uvalaku only to their Southern partners, so that they receive only the one Kula article, the necklaces in this manner, while their arm- shells come to them by inland Kula, from their Northern and Eastern neighbours. The same mutatis mutandis refers to the - Kiriwinians, who receive all their necklaces overland and make overseas Kula for their armshells only. The two islands of Kitava and Vakuta, as well as the other Marshall Bennetts are, so to speak, ambidextrous in the Kula and have to fetch and carry both articles overseas. This, of course, results primarily from the geographical position in a district and a
KIRIWINA AND KITAVA 489
glance at Map V will easily show which Kula communities have to carry all their transactions overseas and which of them have to do one half of them overland. These latter are only the Trobriand districts mentioned in the previous Chapter and the districts in Dobu.
III
This exhausts all the peculiarities of the Kula in Kitava except one, and that a very important one. It has been mentioned before, in fact it is obvious from the account of the uvalaku custom that the Kula does not run with an even flow, but in violent gushes. Thus the uvalaku expedition from Dobu described in Chapter XVI carried about 800 pairs of armshells from Boyowa. Such sudden rushes of the Kula articles are associated with an important institution, which is not known in the Trobriands or in Dobu, but which we find in Kitava and further along the Ring, as far as Tubetube (see Map V). When a man dies, custom imposes a taboo upon the inhabi- tants of that village. This means that no one on a visit is received in the village, and no Kula articles are given away from there. The community lying under the taboo, however, expect to receive as many Kula gifts as possible, and busy them- selvesinthat matter. After acertain time, a big ceremony and distribution of goods, called so’s is held, and invitations are sent out to all the Kula partners, and, in the case of a big affair, even to people from districts beyond the boundary of partnership. A big distribution of food takes place in which all the guests receive their share, and then the Kula valuables are given in great quantities to the partners of that community.
The association of taboo on economic goods with mourning is a wide-spread feature of the Melanesian customs in New Guinea. I found it among the Mailu on the South Coast of New Guinea, where a taboo, called gora, is put on coco-nuts as one of the features of mourning.* The same institution, as we saw, obtainsin Dobu. Similar taboos are to be found among the Southern Massim.f
The importance of such economic taboos at times of mourning is due to another wide-spread association, that
* See the Author’s Memoir in the Transactions of the Royal Society of S. Australia. ‘‘ The Natives of Mailu,” pp. 580-588.
+ Cf. Professor C. G. Seligman. Op. cit., Chapter XLIV.
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namely which obtains between mourning and feasts, or, more correctly, distributions of food, which are made at intervals during a more or less prolonged period after a person’s death. An especially big feast, or rather distribution, is made at the end of the period, and on this occasion the accumulated goods, usually coco-nut, betel-nut and pigs, are distributed. Death among all the coastal natives of Eastern New Guinea causes a great and permanent disturbance in the equilibrium of tribal life. On the one hand, there is the stemming of the normal flow of economic consumption. On the other hand, an innumer- able series of rites, ceremonies and festive distributions, which one and all create all sorts of reciprocal obligations, take up the best part of the energy, attention and time of the natives for a period of a few months, or a couple of years according to the importance of the dead. The immense social and economic upheaval which occurs after each death is one of the most salient features of the culture of these natives, and one also which on its surface strikes us as enigmatic and which entices into all sorts of speculations and reflections. What makes the problem still more obscure and complex is the fact that all these taboos, feasts, and rites have nothing whatever to do, in the belief of the natives, with the spirit of the deceased. This latter has gone at once and settled definitely in another world, entirely oblivious of what happens in the villages and especially of what is done in memory of his former existence.
The so’s (distribution of food) as found in Kitava is the final act in a long series of minor distributions. What distinguishes it from its Boyowan counterparts and the similar ceremonies among the other Massim, is the accumulation of Kula goods. In this case, as we have said, the taboo extends also to the valuables. Immediately after death has occurred in a village, a large stick is placed on the reef in front of its landing beach, and a conch shell is tied to it. This is a sign that no visitors will be received who come to ask for Kula goods. Besides this, a taboo is also imposed on coco-nut, betel-nut and pigs.
These details, as well as the following ones, I received from an intelligent and reliable Kitavan informant, who has settled in Sinaketa. He told me that according to the import- ance of the death, and the speed with which the goods were accumulating after a year or so, word would be sent round to all the partners and muri-muri (partners once removed).
KIRIWINA AND KITAVA 491
““ When all are assembled,” my informant told me, “ the sagalt (distribution) begins. They sagali first kaulo (yam food), then bulukwa (pig). When pig is plentiful it would be given in halves; when not, it will be quartered. A big heap of yam food, of coco-nut, betel-nut, and banana would be placed for each canoe. Side by side with this row, a row of pig meat would be placed. One man calls out for the yam heaps, another for the pig-meat; the name of each canoe is called out. If it were a whole pig, they would say, To’uluwa kam visibala !’ (To’uluwa, your whole pig)! Otherwise they would call out, ‘ Mililuta, kamt bulukwa!’ (Men of Liluta, your pig). And again, ‘“Mililuta, kamt gogula!’ (Men of Liluta, your heap). They take it, take their heap to their canoe. There, the toliwaga (master of the canoe) would make another small sagalt. Those, who live near by, singe their meat, and carry it home in their canoes. Those who live far away, roast the pig, and eat it on the beach.”’
It will be noted that the supreme chief’s name would be uttered when his and his companion’s share is allotted. With the shares of men of less importance, the name of the village is called out. As on all such occasions, the strangers do not eat their food in public, and even its re-distribution is done in the privacy of their camping place near the canoe.
After the distribution of the food, and of course before this is taken away by the parties, the master of the so’s goes into his house and takes out a specially good piece of valuable. With a blast of the conch shell, he gives it to the most distinguished of his partners present. Others follow his example, and soon the village is filled with conch shell blasts, and all the members of the community are busy presenting gifts to their partners. First, the initial gifts (vaga) are given, and only after this is over, such valuables as have been due of old to their partners, and which have to be given as clinching gifts (yotile) are handed over.
After the whole public distribution is finished and the guests have gone, the members of the sub-clan who organised it, at sunset make a small distribution of their own, called kaymelu. With that the so’2 and the whole period of mourning and of consecutive distributions, is over. I have said before that this account of the so’t has been obtained only through the statements of several informants, one especially very clear
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and reliable. But it has not been checked by personal observa- tion, and as is always the case with such material, there is no guarantee of its being complete.
From the point of view in which it interests us, however, that is, in connection with the Kula, the outstanding fact is well established ; a mortuary taboo temporarily holds up the flow of Kula goods, and a big quantity of valuables thus dammed up, is suddenly let loose by the so’s and spreads in a big wave along the circuit. The big wave of armshells, for instance, which travelled along and was taken up by the uvalaku expedition of the Dobuans, was the ripple of a so’s feast, held one or two months previously at full moon in Yanabwa, a village of Woodlark Island. When I was leaving Boyowa, in September, 1918, a mortuary taboo was in force in the Island of Yeguma, or Egum, as it is pronounced in the Eastern district (the Alcester Islands of the map). Kwaywaya, the chief of Kitava whom I met on his visit in Sinaketa, told me that the people of Yeguma had sent him a sprouting coco-nut, with the message: ‘‘ When its leaves develop, we _ shall sagalt (make the distribution).”” They had kept a coco-nut at the same stage of development in their village, and sent others to to all the neighbouring communities. This would give a first approach in fixing the date, which would be appointed more precisely when the feast was close at hand.
The custom of associating the so’7 with Kula is practised as far as Tubetube. In Dobu, there is no distribution of valuables at the mortuary feast. They have there another custom, however ; at the final mortuary distribution, they like to adorn themselves with armshells and necklaces of the Kula—a custom entirely foreign to the Trobrianders. In Dobu therefore, an approaching mortuary feast also tends to dam up the valuables which after its performance, will ebb away in two waves of mwali and so’ulava along both branches of the Kula. But they have no custom of distributing these valuables during the final mortuary feast, and therefore the release of the vaygu’a - would not be as sudden as in a so’t.
The same word—so’i—is used to denote the mortuary festivities over a wide area in the country of the Massim. Thus, the natives of Bonabona and Su’a’u, on the South Coast of New Guinea celebrate annually in November to January festivities, associated with dancing, gifts of pigs, the building of new houses,
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the erection of a platform and several other features. These feasts, which are held in an inter-connected series each year in several different localities, I had opportunities, as mentioned before, to see in three places, but not to study. Whether they are associated with some form of exchange of valuables I do not know. Mortuary feasts in other districts of the Massim are also called so’2.* What is the relation between these feasts and those of the Northern Massim I am unable to say.f
These considerations bring us more and more to the point, where the two branches of the Kula which we have been following up from the Trobriands Southwards and Eastwards bend back again and meet. On this remaining part of the Kula, on which my information, however, is scanty, a few words will be said in the next Chapter.
* Cf. Professor C. G. Seligman. Op. cit., p. 584.
¢ The ethnographic researches at present carried on in Su’a’u by Mr. W, E. Armstrong, of Cambridge, will no doubt throw light on this subject.