Foodways and Empathy

Relatedness in a Ramu River Society, Papua New Guinea

Anita von Poser

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780857459206
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Through the sharing of food, people feel entitled to inquire into one another's lives and ponder one another's states in relation to their foodways. This in-depth study focuses on the Bosmun of Daiden, a Ramu River people in an under-represented area in the ethnography of Papua New Guinea, uncovering the conceptual convergence of local notions of relatedness, foodways, and empathy. In weaving together discussions about paramount values as passed on through myth, the expression of feelings in daily life, and the bodily experience of social and physical environs, a life-world unfolds in which moral, emotional, and embodied foodways contribute notably to the creation of relationships. Concerned with unique processes of "making kin, " the book adds a distinct case to recent debates about relatedness and empathy and sheds new light onto the conventional anthropological themes of food production, sharing, and exchange.

Chapter One
The Ethnographic Frame

In this chapter I introduce Bosmun starting from a historical perspective. This is the result of a particular concern that originally turned up during initial talks with people in Daiden. It is also in line with Kirsch’s idea of exploring a particular people’s historical encounters that move beyond the local level so as “to challenge representations of New Guinea that emphasize its isolation and difference rather than its historical connections to the rest of the world” (Kirsch 2006: 24). The first sections of this chapter seek to satisfy people’s legitimate interest in the historical sources that relate to them in one way or another. I trace Bosmun history from past to present in written accounts and then briefly discuss their name and their language. I then proceed to a description of their actual location and how the residential structure has changed during the last seventy years.

The last sections of the chapter serve to segue into the following chapters. I sketch the physical setting with particular regard to the procurement of food and I outline the most elemental structures of relatedness in Daiden. In this context, I explain notions of moiety and clan and how the sharing of a platform is considered to be central for the cohesion of groups. I then briefly address how group leaders gain influence and how political decisions are made. Finally, I describe relevant kin terms as well as relationships of particular importance.

Historical Orientations

At different points in time, Bosmun encountered different people and representatives from nonlocal institutions who imposed their presence on them in different ways. Records have been made of such encounters and I have condensed what seem to me to be the most notable. These contacts brought sociocultural, religious, and economic rearrangements or alternative visions to be integrated into existing contours of life.

“Wandering Strangers” in the Ramu Basin

In terms of Western cartography, the meandering course of the Ramu was surveyed and mapped for the first time during the German colonial era, which lasted from 1884 to 1914, in northeast New Guinea. The first European to see the mouth of the Ramu was Otto Finsch of the “Neu-Guinea Compagnie” in 1885 (Anonymous 1885: 5; Finsch 1888: 297–298). The first to follow the Ramu on board a ship was Vice Admiral Freiherr von Schleinitz, who was on his way back from the Sepik River to Finschhafen with his steamer “Ottilie,” in 1886. As the river had been encountered from aboard the steamer, the admiral decided that it should become known as Ottilie River (Anonymous 1887: 53–55). Ten years later the explorers Lauterbach, Kersting, and Tappenbeck set out from Astrolabe Bay in search of the headwaters of the Markham River. Eventually they found a river that was flowing northwest and not southeast. In the Bismarck Range it was named “Jagéi” and as they moved downstream they picked up another name—“Ramu” (Anonymous 1896: 41). No information is given as to where exactly they heard the name “Ramu” and what it might have meant. Since they had to abandon their voyage due to insufficient supplies, they could not establish whether this was the same course as the one explored by von Schleinitz. Thus, Tappenbeck led a second exploratory journey in 1898, this time ascending the Ottilie River. The result was the discovery that the Ottilie indeed joined the waters whose upper reaches already had been spotted (Anonymous 1897: 52–53, 1898: 51–59; Krieger 1899: 11, 118–119). Owing to the explorations of Tappenbeck and his colleagues, the name Ottilie, coined by von Schleinitz, never came into common usage (Hagen 1899: 16, 142; Höltker 1961: 286). More explorations followed, for instance, the Gogol–Ramu Expedition of 1913 (Braun 1916; Gehrmann 1916) and the Wattle Expedition of 1921 (Lord Moyne 1936; Lord Moyne & Haddon 1936: 269).

The first written accounts about Bosmun date from this period. Botanist Gehrmann (1916) of the Gogol–Ramu Expedition wrote some early comments about them, though he did not mention them by name. In October 1913 the prospectors took a two-day rest at a location that now forms the part of the residential area of the Bosmun group called Rom. Based on Gehrmann’s (1916: 26) plotting of the campsite on a map and his diary notes, I conclude that his team came into contact with Bosmun. His description of the material culture and particularly of the environs matches both my own observations and what I learned through narrations:

24. October. Manam [a volcanic island] is frequently visible on the trip. … We pass many plantations, several villages, and a newly inhabited place. The people here already have very long dugout canoes. … The edge of the canoe is ornately carved. The people already wear the head decoration that is so characteristic of the coastal groups and the lower Sepik. … We see a lot of canoes, small coconut palms, and simple housings. The forest is not thickly wooded and has many grass clearings. … At midday a strong wind blows. … Manam still towers over the treetops. Due to the wind, the Ramu has small waves; even whitecaps arise. … At twelve o’clock we pitch a camp at a dry sago swamp. The locals seem to regularly rinse sago in this area. … In the afternoon, locals pass by, apparently establishing a new place, maybe at the location we passed today. Here, the Ramu has plenty of freshwater mussels (Anodonta sp.), and the porters are keen to gather them and to cook and eat them. …. 25. October. Manam towers right in front of us. At night, one could see its firelight. Sago is rinsed throughout the whole day. People from neighboring villages visit us. They bring some coconuts. They are dressed with nice loincloth made of bark and red-dyed rotang belts. (Gehrmann 1916: 29; my translation)¹

Another point that supports my conclusion is Gehrmann’s remark about a newly emerging place. Gehrmann witnessed the onset of a larger residential shift brought about by various factors that I outline later. The emerging place he drew attention to was once a part of the customary hunting, garden, and sago grounds of the Rom. Over time, it turned into a permanent residential ground. More specifically, it was grassland surrounded by many sago palms and its given place name was Ndennden (literally meaning ‘grassland area’). Today the name is pronounced as “Daiden,” making it sound more Tok Pisin–like, as people explained to me. A fitting phrase that Rom repeatedly used in speaking about Daiden was, “we are living in the bush.” As I was told, the first man who lived in this place was Tokne, the mother’s father and father’s father of some of my elder informants. Chronologically, this coincides with Gehrmann’s observation. Moreover, the adjacent river section had and still has a plentitude of freshwater mussels compared to other sections, and the Rom are said to be their guardians since, according to a myth, it was a Rom woman who discovered them. Finally, Gehrmann’s comment about the volcanic island of Manam is of interest. Manam is no longer directly visible from Daiden, perhaps because the location of Daiden has changed over time or the surrounding forest has grown since Gehrmann’s time. It is, however, still possible to locate the volcano from Daiden by the smoke of its occasional eruptions.²

Colonial prospectors focused primarily on the upper part of the Ramu since it provided a convenient entrance into the Bismarck Range, which was supposed to hold gold deposits (Anonymous 1897: 52). The lower part, including its peoples, thus remained rather neglected by the administration (Lord Moyne 1936: 112). However, Catholic missionaries almost simultaneously began to spread in this area of New Guinea. Proselytization by the SVD (Societas Verbi Divini) in northeast New Guinea had started in 1896, and between 1900 and 1914 numerous mission stations were established along the north coast (Steffen 1995: 186, 190). In July 1926, Father Kirschbaum of SVD, who had set up the earliest mission station on the Sepik River in 1913, was among the first messengers to pay visits to the Ramu (Höltker 1961: 287; Kirschbaum 1927: 202; Steffen 1995: 199). From the 1920s onward, local catechists were increasingly sent out from the coastal stations to the interiors of the Bogia District. The local catechists, too, helped to create more outstations (Steffen 1995: 200–212). In 1935, regular mission work started in the Bosmun area (Höltker 1937a: 1570). Around 1958/59, the Catholic Mission finally relocated its headquarters from the seacoast to the Mbur River (Howard 1957/58: 8; Kahler 1959/60: 3, 7), to the tributary that marks the heart of the Bosmun area. The mission station’s move is also briefly described in the memoirs of Father Morin of SVD, edited by Father Fisher of SVD (1992: 51–52), who set out to missionize at the north coast of Papua New Guinea in 1944. In 2008, I brought the people of Daiden Father Morin’s memoirs. Although they were originally published in Alexishafen near Madang, I had found the memoirs at the Anthropos Institute in Sankt Augustin, Germany. They were written in English and people were enthusiastic to read them; my house automatically became crowded every day (which, in turn, made me enthusiastic). My elder conversation partners remembered Father Morin well. Touched to see his picture on the cover of his published memoirs, they said, Ah … gutpela pater bilong mipela ya, kela man ya! (‘Ah … our good Father, [who was] a bald headed man!’).

Until the 1940s, most of the residential area of the Bosmun was located on the Mbur River, while the surroundings were primarily used for food-production purposes or as temporary dwelling sites. In 1936, a year before Blackwood’s and Höltker’s arrivals, another traveler came upon the residents of the Mbur. It was Lord Moyne, a collector of ethnographic objects by order of the British Museum. In his travelogue he stated: “[W]e stopped to speak to some natives at the entrance of a creek three miles long leading to a group of five villages known as Bosman or Bushmun. … The Bosman are a fierce tribe and apt to kill wandering strangers at sight. … This tribe have been inveterate head-hunters, and if the practice has now ceased it is merely due to fear of punishment by the government” (Lord Moyne 1936: 122–123). Fortunately, Lord Moyne and his traveling companions seemed not to have fallen into the category of “wandering strangers.” They were able to continue their journey up the river after having purchased different objects like paddles, masks, and clay pots (Lord Moyne 1936: 123–124). According to Höltker (1975: 556) and Blackwood (1951: 266), it was Lord Moyne (1936) who introduced the Bosmun people into the literature. However, there is a colonial report from 1899 that not only refers to the “Buschmann” (Anonymous 1899: 565), but contains information that probably fits into a rather puzzling story I was told repeatedly about an unidentified white male who is believed to have lived several years with the Bosmun. The report purports:

From the mouth of the Ramu River in Kaiser Wilhelmsland, it is reported: In February of this year, the chiefs of the villages Buschmann [Bosmun], Margnitsch [Marangis], Borbor [Bodbod], and Kajan [Kayan] made the following report to the police station: In November of 1897, a completely naked and unarmed European came down the Ramu in a small river canoe and followed the beckoning of the Tamuls [probably a pejorative term for the local population] to land at their place, which is the village of Buschmann located about eight miles upstream. He was well taken care of; the Tamuls gave him food to eat and a loincloth to wear. He stayed about one month at Buschmann, and from there he left for Marg [Marangis] at Venus Point, guided by the Tamuls. Here, he stayed about two months (December 1897 and January 1898). Then, he walked further along the coast, in a southeasterly direction, and reached Barbor [Bodbod], where he immediately was shown the same level of hospitality as he had received in Margnitsch. The Tamuls had asked him to stay because they had been taught a lot by him; because of his white skin, they thought of him as a supernatural being, which is also apparent in the name they gave to him, “Barr,” that is, the sun. He did not stay, but went past Kajan and came upon Bodian (a spot on a small island near the coast). There in Bodian, he seems to have suffered an unnatural or violent death in February of 1898. There is no evidence of his nationality since the Tamuls did not remember any word he might have used. It probably was an Australian gold digger who, following the course of the Ramu, fought his way through from British New Guinea. (Anonymous 1899: 565; my translation)³

The story I was given diverges at some points from the colonial report, and there certainly have been more “wandering strangers” in the Ramu River basin. But the narrative that lingers on in Bosmun collective memory is that of a white man who was kidnapped as a boy in a fight between Bosmun and an anonymous white ship’s crew. As the Bosmun warriors fought back vigorously, the crew escaped hastily and did not realize that a boy had been taken. During the time of raids and active head-hunting, Bosmun regularly captured children or adults from enemy groups. The boy thus stayed. He is said to have been socialized by Bosmun until he attained manhood. He learned the local language and even went into the dnene tomuη, a structure (tomuη) built underground and covered with grass (dnen), where young males would learn to play secret flutes as part of their initiation. Höltker (1975: 567) provides a drawing of such a subterranean cavern that he saw in 1937 and he called “Flötenschule” (‘flute school’). As initiation rites are no longer practiced in the way they were, these subterranean enclosures are no longer built. As an adult, the boy left the Bosmun area for unknown reasons. Whether he was the European-looking stranger who aroused attention in the years of 1897/98 remains uncertain. Evidence, at least for the presence of a white man and the Bosmun appreciation of him, may be traced in a photograph taken in 1937 by Höltker (1966). The photograph shows the interior of a mirpi tomuη (‘spirit house’) and Höltker states:

The next to the last post … shows at its base, below fringes and shells, a carved human figure whose facial shape does not resemble the otherwise prevailing artistic style here. The Bosngun people [Bosmun] declared that it was meant to depict a particular white man (Englishman) who was known to the Bosngun as a trader and boy-recruiter and who somehow had gained their sympathy. … Was the depiction in the spirit house an attempt to captivate the magic power of the admired Englishman? (1966: 32; my translation)⁴

Höltker seems not to have read the colonial report, since otherwise he probably would have asked people about it. Whether it was true or not, depicting a favorable trader instead of a child stolen in a battle must have seemed less suspicious, especially when conveyed to someone representing the rising SVD Mission apparatus, which was spreading a dogma diametrically opposed to the practice of raids or head-hunting.

From the mid 1940s onward, Australian patrol officers commonly known as kiap began to pay systematic visits to the Lower Ramu and Hansa Bay area. Throughout the years leading up to Papua New Guinea’s independence in 1975, their presence had become generally accepted. The Bosmun recollection of the time of colonial rule is a rather positive one. The establishment of an aid post, which started to operate at the Mbur around 1952 (Healy 1951/52: 9; Frawley 1953/54: 10) is remembered as a positive development, and, as people explained to me, it was the time when things on sale were cheaper and when “villages were tidy.” Houses had to be placed in lines and bordered with flowers, and weathered ones had to be replaced immediately with new ones. Although today they are regarded as neglected, nobody really seemed to bother about weathered houses. Some negative feelings about the colonial period remain, however, because a patrol officer is said to have “borrowed” two stone objects that used to be of highest ancestral and ritual value. They were never returned and no one knows the officer’s actual name, though it is said to have happened at the time of Mista Siki or Mista Braun. There are, in fact, reports made by two officers named Sheekey (1962) and Browne (1968/69).

Patrol reports about Bosmun do not only provide historical facts and dates. Some of the officers were also engaged in gathering ethnographic information (Browne 1968/69; Dyer 1952/53; Frawley 1953/54; M.A. Douglas 1970/71). That Bosmun have speculated abo...