Malinowski amongst the Magi

The Natives of Mailu [1915/1988]

Bronislav Malinowski

• Éditeur: Routledge
• Année: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135033934
• Édition: 1
• Sujet: Littérature
• Sous-sujet: Critique littéraire

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 This edition includes a major essay by Michael Young who draws on Malinowski's diary, unpublished notebooks and letters.

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...