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Part one
Habitat and economy
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Editor's note to part one
Sources
The following two chapters are a distillation of Malinowski's own introductory survey of Trobriand subsistence activities. The text has been assembled from Coral Gardens and their Magic (vol. I), pp.6-9, 12-21, 23-34, 37-47, 50-5,61-8,73-83 and 181-5.
Further reading
In addition to Malinowski's other writings on the subject (see bibliography in Firth 1957a), further information on Trobriand economics is given by Austin (1945-6). Bradfield (1973) presents a useful synopsis of Malinowski's data on gardening. For further discussion of Trobriand time-reckoning see Austin (1938-9, 1949-50) and Leach (1949-50). For additional comments on and alternative interpretations of rank and chieftainship in the Trobriands see Brunton (1975), Groves (1956), Powell (1960, 1969b) and Uberoi (1962). A comparative account of subsistence gardening in Dobu can be found in Fortune (1932), and for a comprehensive study of competitive food exchange in a neighbouring Massim society see Young (1971).
Figure 1 The Trobriand Islands
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1
An outline of Trobriand economics
1 Habitat
The Trobriand archipelago which faces you on the map (Fig. 1) is a coral atoll, or more correctly a part of the Lusançay atoll. The group which concerns us consists of one big island, two of fair size - Vakuta and Kayleula - and a number of smaller ones surrounding a basin or lagoon. This latter is very shallow, parts of it are not navigable even to the native canoes, but it is crossed with deeper channels. It is open to all winds, giving no shelter whatever from the north-westerly monsoon or the strong southerly winds, and affording only a little protection near the shores of the main island from the south-easterly trade wind. To the east, at a distance of about one hundred miles, lies the second large centre of the Northern Massim culture - Woodlark Island. Between Woodlark Island and the Trobriands there is a bridge of five small islands Kitava, Iwa, Gawa, Kwaywata and Digumenu - also inhabited by people of the same culture.
In our detailed descriptions we shall, however, dwell almost exclusively on the main island of the Trobriands, with only brief references to the contiguous areas. On this large island, called by the natives Boyowa or, after its principal province, Kiriwina, we shall find several types of scenery, soil and agriculture. The northern part, a wide circular expanse of land, harbours most of the fertile soil. Only the narrow coral ridge which runs along its northern and eastern border remains almost completely outside cultivation and is covered with patches of primeval jungle. But this never attains to full tropical luxuriance, and some economically important plants, such as the sago palm, the lawyer cane, and the bamboo, do not grow there and have to be imported as raw material from abroad. Some portions of the land in the interior are also useless because they are too swampy; while, in the west, large stretches on the coast are covered with mangrove, which grows on a brackish swamp awash at high tide. In the southern part of the island the dead coral crops up, especially at the extreme end, leaving large tracks of country uncultivable and uninhabited. The brackish swamps of the southern portion extend deeper inland and the villages are placed either on the lagoon, where fishing makes their existence possible, or on one or two fertile spots inland.
The description of the territory just given, taken in connexion with the map of the Archipelago (which shows incidentally that for a South Sea tribe the Trobriands have a very dense population), the realisation that these natives have a high level of cultural ability, of political and economic organisation - enables us roughly to assess the type of their production and industrial development. The fertile humus covering the wide expanse of dead coral lends itself obviously to an intensive cultivation of useful plants, i.e., since we are in the South Seas, of yam, taro, sweet potato, banana and coconut. The open lagoon, teeming with submarine life, would naturally invite an enterprising and intelligent population to develop effective fishing. The industrious and compact settlements would lead us to anticipate excellence in arts and crafts. Differences in habitat and opportunity might well be expected to produce special centres of industry and systems of internal trade. Again, the absence of certain indispensable raw materials - stone (dead coral is useless for any industrial purpose), clay, rattan, bamboo, sago would suggest an extensive trade with the outside world. The absence of primeval jungle indicates that hunting cannot be of any importance and the search for wild produce can play only a subsidiary part.
This rough estimate is indeed correct almost in every essential. The Trobriander is above all a cultivator, not only by opportunity and need, but also by passion and his traditional system of values. Half of the native's working life is spent in the garden and around it centres perhaps more than half of his interests and ambitions. In gardening the natives produce much more than they actually require, and in any average year they harvest perhaps twice as much as they can eat. Nowadays this surplus is exported by Europeans to feed plantation hands in other parts of New Guinea; in olden days it was simply allowed to rot. Again, they produce this surplus in a manner which entails much more work than is strictly necessary for obtaining the crops. Much time and labour is given up to aesthetic purposes, to making the gardens tidy, clean, cleared of all débris; to building fine, solid fences; to providing specially strong and big yam-poles. All these things are to some extent required for the growth of the plant, but there can be no doubt that the natives push their conscientiousness far beyond the limits of the purely necessary. The non-utilitarian element in their garden work is still more clearly perceptible in the various tasks which they carry out entirely for the sake of ornamentation, in connexion with magical ceremonies and in obedience to tribal usage.
Fishing comes next in importance. In some villages situated on the lagoon it is the main source of sustenance and claims about half of their time and labour. But while fishing is prominent in some districts, agriculture is paramount in all. Were fishing made impossible to the Trobrianders by a natural or cultural calamity, the population as a whole would find enough sustenance from agriculture. But when the gardens fail in times of drought, famine inevitably sets in. Hunting is hardly an economic pursuit. From time to time you see a native walking out of the village spear in hand, and he tells you that perhaps he will be able to kill a small wallaby or a bush-pig. Bird-snaring has a little more importance. But every time I saw the natives eating a wild-fowl I found that it had been shot by some white trader and passed on from a distant village. Collecting of food from the bush in times of drought, the catching of crabs and molluscs in mangrove swamp and lagoon, are much more substantial contributions to the tribal larder. Transport and trade are well developed. The inland barter of fish and vegetable food is an institution which controls a great deal of their public life.
Thus, in brief, we find that the environmentalist's predictions are substantially correct. But there are a great many things referring to work and its organisation, to the production and distribution of wealth and to its consumption, which cannot be inferred from ecological indications. The environmentalist will foresee nothing of the great importance of magic and of political power in the organisation of gardening. In the distribution of produce he cannot anticipate the extremely complex way in which kinship and relationship by marriage impose obligations and place the Trobriand household economically on a two-fold foundation. Nor could he guess the intricate manner in which mother-right combined with patrilocal marriage complicates the system. The contrivances and customs which allow these natives to accumulate large quantities of food, and the legal system which concentrates wealth in the hands of a few leaders who can then organise enterprises on a tribal scale, have to be observed and stated from experience.
2 Economic provinces
A glance at the map (Fig. 1) will show that the broad expanse in the north is thickly populated with villages scattered all over the circular area, whereas in the south there is a collection of villages near the western coast which run on in a continuous line to the lagoon settlements of the north. These two constellations of villages, the evenly distributed batch in the north and the semicircular belt of lagoon settlements, corresponds to the occupational difference between agriculture and fishing. But besides these two main distinctions, further differences can be found between every one of the several districts - differences which are partly political, partly sociological and partly, what is of special interest to us here, economic.
Thus in the north we have three central provinces; Kiriwina, to the north-east, Tilataula in the middle, and Kuboma to the southwest. The first two depend almost exclusively on agriculture. Kiriwina is the politically dominant, socially most exalted and economically perhaps the richest province, and the paramount chief of the whole area has his residence in Omarakana. The villages at the northern end of the island count as part of Kiriwina; and among these are Laba'i and Kaybola, the only two fishing settlements in this district. They specialise in two types of fishing only, shark and mullet, which though strictly seasonal have yet some economic importance. When a large shark is caught off Kaybola - for this is the place where shark fishing is known in magic and practice - the whole district will have its fill of this pungent fish. Again, when rich shoals of mullet appear at the full moon off Laba'i, and are caught in large quantities with air-nets, tribute will be sent to the paramount chief and to lesser chiefs, and fish will be plentiful all over Kiriwina, There is a special magic connected with this fishing, chartered by mythological tradition and localised ritual, and carried out by the respective headman of each community, with taboos and ceremonial. The villages are bound to give tribute of their catch and in turn are presented with counter-gifts from the recipient communities.
In Kiriwina most of the villages have a 'sea-front' on the eastern shore, where a large canoe for overseas trips, and several small canoes for fishing or coasting, are beached. In these villages a man would go out with his fish-hook or a group of people with a seine and make some haul on the reef. This was an amateur pursuit which enabled the villagers to obtain a little fish now and then during the calms in autumn and spring, more for pleasure of the sport and delicacy of the relish than for business. When I say amateur pursuit, I mean that there was no official magic, no season for fishing, no communal organised expeditions, no obligation to outside communities or to their own people.
The next province, Tilataula, did no fishing whatever. They would be described by a native expression meaning 'real landlubbers'. If Kiriwina, as the brilliant, exalted, aristocratic province, might be called the Athens of the Trobriands, Tilataula, strong in military arts, hard working and sober, could be called the Sparta of the island. They themselves are proud of their agriculture and of their frequent victories over their more aristocratic but less militaristic neighbours. The chief of Kabwaku, the capital of Tilataula, used to wage war occasionally against the Paramount Chief, to whom in one way he was subject, but in another a rival and a dangerous antagonist. Economically these natives concentrate on gardening; they have no canoes either for fishing or for overseas expeditions, and they are not skilled in any art except one, the polishing of stone.
But it is only when we move further west to the district of Kuboma that we find really developed industries on that stonier soil which produces distinctly less brilliant gardens than its eastern neighbours. We might feel tempted to speak of the inhabitants of Kuboma as the industrial caste of the Trobriands; for neither in ancient Greece nor even on the Mediterranean can we find any exact parallel. They are not like Phoenicians or Jews, primarily traders, but rather industrialists and craftsmen; and, as in any strict caste system, their high manual ability does not give them rank but rather places them among the despised. This refers especially to the most admirable of all Trobriand craftsmen, the inhabitants of Bwoytalu. This village, which shares with its neighbours of Ba'u the reputation for the highest efficiency in sorcery, can certainly show the best results in carving; it is traditionally cultivated there and both for perfection and quantity of output is unparalleled in the region. From time immemorial its people have been the woodworkers and carvers of eastern New Guinea. And they still turn out wooden platters, hunting- and fishing-spears, staffs, polishing-boards, combs, wooden hammers and bailers in large quantities, and with a degree of geometrical and artistic perfection which any visitor to an ethnographic museum will appreciate. They also excel in plaited fibre work and in certain forms of basketry. During the wet season, when some other communities are busy preparing overseas expeditions, or engaging in festivities and ceremonial distributions, or (generations ago) indulging in war, the men of Bwoytalu will day after day sit on one of their large covered platforms, rounding, bending, carving and polishing their masterpieces in wood. It is a wholesale manufacture for trade and export. There is no magic whatever connected with their work, but from childhood skill is drilled into every individual, the knowledge of material, ambition and a sense of value. No other community can or tries to compete with them.
The other villages, Yalaka, Buduwaylaka and Kudukwaykela specialise in the production of quick lime for betel chewing. The last named village used also to produce the burnt-in designs on decorated lime pots, which can still be admired in an ethnographic museum and form undoubtedly one of the high-water marks of South Sea art. Unfortunately this industry is now dead. Plain lime pots, gaudily and as a rule vulgarly bedecked with cheap European trade beads, have completely superseded the beautiful native product. The inhabitants of Luya are the main producers of the finely plaited basket work made of lalang grass, chiefly used for the three-tiered basket, the widower's cap and small handbags. These are traded even now all over the archipelago, indeed over the whole Kula district. Some of the villages, notably Ba'u, Bwoytalu and Wabutuma, also practise fishing and specialise in catching, by means of a multi-pronged spear, that despised fish, the stingaree.
Moving in our general economic survey, we come to the lagoon district of the north - Kulumata. In the large, compound village of Kavataria we find again a Tabalu in residence, and in two other neighbouring settlements chiefs of the same rank have also become naturalised. But this district is not one political unit under the sway of one headman as is the case with the three preceding ones.
The natives are fishermen who treat their calling as a serious and important pursuit. Since in this they are closely akin to some of the southern villages, let us cast our eye on the map again and consider the other fishing districts. There we find Luba, the complex of villages situated on what might be called the waist of the main island. Here the new capital Olivilevi, founded a few generations ago as an offshoot of Omarakana, and its neighbour Okayboma are mainly agricultural. The other villages, however, from Okopukopu down to Oburaku, depended chiefly on their fishing. Further south still and separated by a somewhat prolonged stretch of unoccupied land, we find the large village of Sinaketa surrounded by a few smaller settlements, and south of these, situated towards the eastern shore, three villages. These latter are mainly agricultural. Sinaketa, on the other hand, is an important fishing centre as well as the seat of at least one dominant industry the production of red shell-disks used as ornaments and tokens of value.
Now concentrating our attention on the fishing villages we find that each of the coastal settlements has a type of fishing of its own. As we know, Bwoytalu and its neighbours, though they net fish, collect molluscs and catch crab, are primarily interested in the spearing of stingaree. Kavataria, the large settlement in the centre of Kulumata, has an importance specially due to the presence in their portion of the lagoon of a number of coral outcrops with cavities and shelters which afford the best opportunity for catching fish by means of a poisonous root. The coral patches are now owned individually, at times leased, and they are worked often and worked hard. The great importance of this fishing is that it is possible to make a catch in weather and under conditions in which no other type of fishing is practicable. It is remarkable that no magic whatever is now practised in connexion with this industry. By the ease of their work and their relative independence of weather, the natives of Kavataria are monopolists, in that they can provide fish when no one else can supply it. In the exchange of fish for vegetables, which plays an important role in Trobriand economic life, they exact about double the usual price from the other party, but in return offer punctual and reliable delivery.
The communities further east, Teyava and Osaysuya, Tukwa'ukwa and Oyweyowa, also fish, but are inferior in their effectiveness not only to Kavataria, the premier fishing centre, but also to Oburaku and Okopukopu. The last named places have no coral outcrops in their portion of the lagoon and all large-scale fishing they do by nets and beating. For this they need a calm day, favourable movements of the shoals and, of course, an organised communal enterprise. When successful their yield is large and they give a better measure in exchange; but their partners may very often have to wait for a long time and even in the case of a successful expedition the yield may be fitful. Moving further south we come to the only village situated on the eastern shore - Wawela. The inhabitants do some odd fishing on calm days, but their speciality is knowledge of native astronomy and meteorology, or more correctly, of native time-reckoning. Economically they depend on their gardens and to a considerable extent also on the rich coconut plantations on their beach.
The large settlement of Sinaketa, comprising some seven or eight component villages, is important in that from here, and from the large village of Vakuta on the adjacent island to the south, some of the main sailing expeditions are made to the Amphletts and to Dobu, where the ceremonial Kula exchange takes place and also some straightforward inter-tribal trade. In olden days, and to a certain extent even now, the natives of Sinaketa and Vakuta used also, on their expeditions, to fish for the spondylus shell out of which the shell-disks were manufactured. There is another industry of the same type and that is the making of arm-shells. This was above all the speciality of the one district not yet mentioned - the small i...
