Malinowski amongst the Magi
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Malinowski amongst the Magi

The Natives of Mailu [1915/1988]

Bronislav Malinowski

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eBook - ePub

Malinowski amongst the Magi

The Natives of Mailu [1915/1988]

Bronislav Malinowski

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About This Book

A reissue of Malinowski's first field monograph, containing historical and theoretical material. This edition includes a major essay by Michael Young who draws on Malinowski's diary, unpublished notebooks and letters.

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Publisher
Routledge
Year
2013
ISBN
9781135033934
THE NATIVES OF MAILU: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF THE ROBERT MOND RESEARCH WORK IN BRITISH NEW GUINEA
BY B. MALINOWSKI, PH.D., CRACOW,
Robert Mond Travelling Student in the University of London
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
Prof. Seligman’s classification of the Papuo-Melanesians; the Mailu problem
The natives of Mailu, or Toulon Island, and the Mailu-speaking inhabitants of the mainland
Ethnic position of the Mailu; their relation to the Motu-speaking tribes; use of the Motuan language
Remarks on the conditions of work and on the methods of presenting the material
CHAPTER I
GEOGRAPHY
The country of the Mailu; rainfall; rivers; flora and fauna; reefs; quarries
The villages
The neighbours of the Mailu
CHAPTER II
SOCIAL DIVISIONS
1. The tribe.
General remarks
The Mailu tribe and the relations between the different villages
2. The village community.
Type of Mailu village; its surroundings; village buildings
The village community as a social unit
3. The dúbu (clan and subclan).
Description of clan, subclan, and their relation; the clubhouse
Sociological character of clan and subclan
4. The household and the family – kinship.
Household and family
Houses and house-building
Kinship
CHAPTER III
TRIBAL LIFE
1. Daily life.
Division of daytime
Sleeping
Toilet, dress, and cleanliness
Meals
Vevéni custom
Food: raw materials and preparation of food
Cooking and dishing-up
Sago dishes and coconut cream
Narcotics
2. Village life.
The seasons and their influence upon the social life of the natives
Seasons; native division of the year
Normal life in the village
3. Sexual life and marriage.
Sexual life before marriage
General remarks about marriage
Marriage in its individual aspect; marriage ceremonies
Relations between a man and his wife’s family as established by marriage
Essentials of the Marriage Contract
4. Children and their play.
Birth and infancy
Childhood and initiation of boys
Games and amusements
Toy boats and sailing games of the boys
5. Regulation of public life: legal institutions: góra (taboo).
General remarks
Rudimentary measures corresponding to criminal law
Taboo (góra)
6. Warfare and head hunting
CHAPTER IV
ECONOMICS
1. Land and gardens.
Land tenure
Garden making
The coconut and betelnut
Use made of some jungle plants
2. Hunting
3. Fishing
4. Transport and trading.
Introductory remarks
Description of native canoes and of native sailing
Ownership of canoes
Trading expeditions
5. Forms of work.
General remarks
Communal labour
Sexual divisi on of labour
6. Property and inheritance.
Introductory remarks
Communism
Native view of economic value
Inheritance
7. Industries.
Introductory remarks
Pottery
Arm-shells and other shell ornaments
Baskets
Stone implements
Carvings
CHAPTER V
MAGICO-RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES AND BELIEFS
1. Dreadful beings; spirits; sorcery.
Fear of darkness
Nature of the dreaded beings; the Bará’u
Spirits of the dead
Karavéni; O’o
2. Magic.
Black magic
White magic apportioned to individuals
Magic of general usage
3. The feast (madúna).
Sociological importance of the feast
Connection between a feast and the dance performed at this feast
Changes in village life when the feast approaches
Series of minor feasts and preparations for a góvi maduna
The main feast
Parts played by different social divisions in the feast
4. Death, burial, and mourning.
General remarks
The mourners
The mourning
Weeping for the dead, and burial; mortuary feasts
After life
Final mortuary feast and treatment of the skull
CHAPTER VI
ART AND KNOWLEDGE
1. Art.
Decorative art
Dances and songs
2. Knowledge.
Knowledge of stars and weather
Knowledge of disease and doctoring
Plates
Map (facing page 117) showing Mailu, or Toulon, Island and adjacent coast of Papua.
1. Village of Mailu seen from the north-west.
2. Village of Mailu seen from the east.
3. Scene on Mailu beach showing a double canoe (oró’u) which has been temporarily converted into a house-boat.
4. A section of the village of Bórebo seen from the sea.
5. The village street in Mailu looking westwards. The houses seen here belong to the clans Maradúbu and Moráu. Some of them are decorated with rows of sago bundles which, in view of the approaching feast, hang under the thatch eaves.
6. Western end of Bórebo village, showing the dúbu standing in its characteristic position in the middle of the street.
7. Front view of a house in Mailu, showing the typical manner in which the natives occupy verandahs, or lower floor of the house.
8. Side view of a native house. In front a row of girls in their gala petticoats.
9. Group of men in gala dress and decorated for the bára dance.
10. Woman in mourning petticoat.
11. A man squeezing coconut shavings for making coconut cream (górogóro). He has moved into the middle of the street for the convenience of the photographer.
12. Boiling of sago for a small feast. Men are stirring the contents of the pots with long wooden spoons. A temporary shade, removed for the purposes of photography, has been constructed. Only on festive occasions are men concerned with cooking.
13. Group of girls in festive dress. They are wearing glass beads.
14. Two women in gala petticoats, and one in mourning petticoat. They show the method of carrying babies.
15. Flotilla of Mailu toy canoes. The boy owners stand each behind his boat.
16. The toy canoes floating on the small bay in front of Mailu village. The boys have been grouped together for photographic purposes; usually they are scattered all over the shallow water.
17. Mailu double canoe (oró’u) beached.
18. Side view of beached oró’u.
19. An oró’u with hoisted sail.
20. Scooping out the large logs which are to form the dug-outs of an oró’u. To the right an end-on view of a dug-out; to the left a side view. Over the latter a shade has been erected. This plate shows the ‘backs’ of Mailu village.
21. Hoisting of the crab-claw sail.
22. An oró’u ready to sail.
23. Native dressed, and provided with the magical requisites, for the performance of arm-shell magic.
24. Arm-shell magic.
25. Wrapping a bunch of bananas in leaves to protect it from flying foxes. (Photograph taken on the Laróge River, Koíta district.)
26. Nets as set for wallaby hunting. The scene is after the hunt; the men have picked up their spears which, during the hunt, lie on the ground near at hand. (Photograph taken in the Koíta district.)
27. Pot making in Mailu.
28. Final stage in the making of arm-shells; polishing of the shell.
29. Group of natives dressed for the bára dance and holding boars’ tusk ornaments in their teeth.
30. A figure of the bára dance.
31. A bára dance; ready for the quick step which is danced to the sound of the drums without singing. The houses in the background are decorated with ‘sausages’ of sago, and bunches of bananas are seen hanging from posts erected along the street.
32. Dancing the quick step of the bára.
33. A Pantomime figure of the bára.
34. Women decorated for the damoréa dance. (Photograph taken in a Southern Massim village.)
Preface
The ethnological information presented in this memoir was collected during a stay of six months in Papua, from the beginning of September, 1914, till the end of February, 1915. The expedition was suggested by my friend and teacher, Prof. C. G. Seligman, and its organization and scientific direction has also been in his hands. I owe him a further debt of gratitude in that he has made himself responsible for the financing of the expedition, the funds for which were to a great extent supplied by Mr. Robert Mond, F.R.S.E., the well-known scientist and benefactor of science. In every way I am under the greatest obligation to Prof. Seligman, and I hope my work will prove not altogether unworthy of the great trouble and kind care he has taken to make it possible.
I would not have been able to conduct my investigations with any hope of success without the kind and very effective assistance given me by the Federal Department of External Affairs, and by the Papuan Government. Both Mr. Atlee Hunt, C.M.G., Secretary to the Commonwealth Department of External Affairs in Melbourne, and His Excellency Judge J. H. P. Murray, Lieutenant-Governor of British New Guinea, have taken a friendly interest in my work and have given me the best opportunities for carrying it out. To both these gentlemen my sincere thanks are due.
For much help in my investigations I have to thank the Hon. H. W. Champion, Secretary to the Papuan Government, and Dr. W.M. Strong, of Port Moresby.
I also owe much to the kindness of the Resident Magistrates of the Divisions which I visited – Mr. L. P. B. Armit, of Abau; Mr. C. B. Higginson, of Samarai; and Mr. A. H. Symons, of Woodlark Island.
In actual field work I have been greatly helped by the Rev. W. J. V. Saville, of the London Missionary Society, missionary in Mailu, and by Mr. Alfred Greenaway, a resident of long standing in that district. I had also the good fortune to meet Dr. A. C. Haddon, F.R.S., in the field during his short visit to Mailu.
Prof. E. C. Stirling, C.M.G., F.R.S., of Adelaide, has read and corrected my manuscript and given me his invaluable advice on many points. He has also undertaken to edit this memoir. I owe him personally and scientifically more than mere words of acknowledgement can express.
Prof. W. Baldwin Spencer, C.M.G., F.R.S., of Melbourne, whose investigations have marked an epoch in ethnology, gave me the benefit of his unique experience in field work. The personal interest he has been good enough to show in the work of a beginner has been the greatest encouragement I could have received.
My thanks are due to Dr. R. Pulleine, of Adelaide; to Mr. C. Hedley, F.L.S., of the Australian Museum; and to Mr. W. Howchin, F.G.S., Lecturer on Geology in the University of Adelaide, for much help given me in connection with the publication of this memoir.
The drawings in the text have been executed by Miss P. F. Clarke, partly from actual specimens and partly from rough sketches made in the field.
Some parts of the manuscript might have been amplified by adding comparative notes and by incorporating such information as has been obtained among the kindred and neighbouring tribes, the Southern Massim to the east and the Sinaughólo and Motu to the west. I hope, however, that I shall be able to collect some more material, especially among the Southern Massim of Suá’u and Bónabóna, and I am eager to resume field work as soon as possible.
B. M.
Samarai, Papua, June 9, 1915.
Introduction
Seligman’s Classification of the Papuo-Melanesians; the Mailu problem
In his well-known treatise on the ‘Melanesians of British New Guinea’, Prof. Seligman has laid the foundations of Papuo-Melanesian ethnology. He classifies the natives of the territory in the following manner, taking into account physical, linguistic, and cultural data. Calling all the inhabitants of the ‘Great Island’ Papuasians, he says: – ‘The term “Papuan”… will be limited to the geographically more western Papuasians, a congeries of frizzly haired and often mop-headed peoples, whose skin-colour is some shade of brownish black. Th...

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