Trobriand Islands

Over the past century, anthropologists have claimed primary authority regarding authentic filmic representations of indigenous peoples. The emergence of indigenous films since the 1980s—as well as changes within the discipline— have challenged the ethical grounding of such ethnographic representations of the “other.” Unlike the emphasis of ethnographic filmmakers on cultural explanation, many indigenous filmmakers currently engage a critical identity discourse that effectively addresses the complex historical and contemporary contexts of indigenous peoples. This paper contrasts Dustinn Craig’s (White Mountain Apache) experimental film, 4 Wheel War Pony, with anthropologist Jerry Leach’s Trobriand Cricket in order to demonstrate how indigenous and ethnographic films can differ strikingly in their treatment of similar subject matter. With complex hybrid subject positions, indigenous filmmakers are often well positioned to critically engage the most challenging issues facing native communities today. These films also highlight limitations of disciplinary notions of the insider-outsider distinction, ethnographic holism, and objectivity in visual anthropology.

Questo lavoro di Tesi si propone di affrontare un interrogativo aperto da Malinowski in "The Sexual Life of Savages in North-West Melanesia", ossia l'ipofertilità delle adolescenti delle isole Trobriand.
Partendo da un'analisi sincronica di casi simili nell'area melanesiana, vengono illustrate e discusse le teorie e le ipotesi di antropologi, etnografi, psicologi e medici su questo fenomeno nell'arco di quasi un secolo.
Si tratta di un'antologia critica che mette in risalto la costruzione di rappresentazioni culturali costantemente negoziate con il contesto indigeno, mostrando come la sessualità diventi un punto di snodo centrale per l'intero panorama culturale, e come la società dell'arcipelago si sia trasformata (e continui tutt'ora a mutare) in relazione ai miti che su di essa vengono creati.
Andando a svelare i presupposti ideologici delle varie teorie socio-biologiche e mediche, viene mostrato come esse partecipino attivamente a creare nuove storie e modelli, in costante dialogo con la cultura, le relazioni e i corpi dei Trobriandesi.

Trobriand Tales, Kwanebuyee Kilivila: Folktales and Mythical Stories from the Tro- briand Islands of Papua New Guinea, Collected by Jerry W. Leach and Held at the National Anthropo- logical Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, number 53, xxiv + 330 pages, frontispiece + 234 figures, 2 maps, 2021. — This volume comprises an edited compilation of traditional oral narratives from the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea obtained by Jerry W. Leach from 1970 to 1973, which are held in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Anthropological Archives. The narratives encompass key aspects of Trobriand cultural heritage as well as insights into the Kilivila language, regional cosmologies, and past and present social practices. The narratives constitute an elaborate but fragile system of knowledge that is threatened by rapid social change. The book is the culmination of a research project begun in 2011 through the auspices of the Recovering Voices Program at the National Museum of Natural History. Traveling to the Trobriand Islands with copies of the Leach narratives, the editor worked with communities to select the most culturally important and prevalent narratives, 79 of which are presented here. Trobriand communities proposed that those narratives be printed in Kilivila and in English to help pre- serve traditional knowledge for future generations. Each narrative is categorized in local terms, preceded by details regarding the storytellers and a summary, as well as links to other stories when narratives are related, and many are followed by a list of key words and expressions that are defined in a section on vocabulary. Further explanations and illustrations help clarify and complete the stories, providing examples of traditional objects and techniques as well as their uses.

Ethnographic films hold great historical value for the communities in which they were filmed, yet people in source communities often lack access to them. Visitors engaging in ‘visual repatriation’ of ethnographic film can enrich both sides of the ethnographic exchange. I review my experiences screening ethnographic films with Trobriand Islanders, their reactions, and the various ways in which local communities regain ownership of these films, including re-narration and renaming. My findings reiterate how source communities’ reception of, and uses for, ethnographic film can sharply differ from the filmmakers’ original agenda.

Our article explored current Trobriand cosmological views and compared the findings with what had been reported from Malinowski onwards. Using mixed methods research, we assessed contemporary ideas about rebirth and the afterlife and concluded that belief in reincarnation had "shifted significantly [.. .] or never was as widespread or constituted as reported." Francesca Mer-lan, Mark Mosko, and Michelle MacCarthy have engaged with the material presented in stimulating, contrasting , and provocative ways, thereby affording us a welcome opportunity to further elaborate on our results. In his extensive reply to our article, Mosko asserts that our findings do not supplant Malinowski's one-hundred-year-old description of the Trobriand socio-cultural system, nor Mosko's more recent model of Trobriand sociality based upon reincarnation and symmetrical exchanges between the living and the dead (Mosko 2017: 386; Jarillo et al. 2020). Mosko uses three lines of argument to rebuff our findings: (1) our project was flawed from the outset because we misread and misrepresented Malinowski's position on reincarnation ; (2) our methodology was ill-suited for our stated task and our results were further invalidated by the nature of our sample; and (3) our findings were tainted by the alleged involvement of our Trobriand co-authors in efforts to weaken the authority of the current Paramount Chief of Omarakana, of whom Mosko is the de facto anthropologist. In her comments to our piece, Mer-lan concludes that the negation of contemporary belief in reincarnation is probably correct, and credits Malinow-ski's intuition with foreseeing the full realization of its marginalization. MacCarthy concurs with our findings that baloma reside eternally in Tuma and reminds us of the dynamic characteristics of Trobriand culture, introducing a fascinating variation on reincarnation through the lens of born-again Pentecostal Christians. Mosko claims that our overly narrow reading of Ma-linowski overlooks his larger project, "an ethnographic analysis that would lead him to the construction of a model of the culture and social organization as a total system" (p. 402, emphasis in original). Similarly, Merlan advises that our article could be improved with an application of the nuanced, "unfolding" approaches to variations in beliefs advocated and practiced by Mali-nowski. Her comments, and for the most part Mosko's, are based on Malinowski's first essay Baloma, which was produced prior to his linguistic fluency, hereby ignoring crucial information from his diaries, notes, letters, and subsequent and more definitive works. In Merlan's conclusion , she cautions us that "we ought not attribute to

'Brokers and Boundaries: Colonial exploration in indigenous territory'. ANU Press, 2016

At the time of British New Guinea Administrator William MacGregor's first visits to the Trobriand Islands in 1890 and 1891, the islands had been frequented by whalers for over 40 years and by traders for over a decade. However, this long history of European encounter and exchange in the Trobriands failed to result in the construction of a body of knowledge available to MacGregor, since many encounters were not recorded or were buried in ships' logs, published information was widely scattered, and some regular visits were kept secret. Because of this, MacGregor ventured into an informational wilderness to 'discover' the islands for himself. On the other hand, these previous exchanges had produced a local body of shared knowledge that shaped his reception by Trobriand intermediaries, especially local chiefs who attempted to recruit him into exclusive exchange relationships. If not unrecognised by MacGregor, then at least unreported were the surely numerous interactions between Trobrianders and his Polynesian and Melanesian companions, whose presence and conduct would have been as significant for Trobrianders as MacGregor's was.

The people came out and shed their anaconda skins. — Irving Goldman, Cubeo origin myth

While functionalist accounts of myth have generally yielded to structural analyses since the appearance of Lévi-Strauss's classic essay, " The Structural Study of Myth, " the relationship between myth and that analytical entity called " culture " is still unclear. The difficulty can be traced to an unfinished anthropological dialogue about what culture is or what cultures are, and how it / they can best be described. My central thesis is that anthropologists have tended to regard their subject matter — culture — as a received object of study and that they have been mistaken in this tendency. The essay proposes to regard " a culture " as generated and perpetually shifting meaning, a motivated affirmation of a system of differences. Establishing the semiotic form of two Arawak and Trobriand origin myths helps to show how 0 0 1 F an thropological theories are themselves composed. A textual criticism of one theory of myth — Malinowski's — is combined with an analysis of two bona fide " primitive " myths. The comparison indicates that the myths provide better theory about the dynamics of cultural identity than does the theory of myth, Anthropologists have written a great deal about myth, and this paper is intended in part to add yet a few more pages to that voluminous literature. But it also has a second purpose, one seldom developed in treatises on comparative mythology: I hope to demonstrate how a myth can contribute directly to anthropological theory. I want to claim that just as anthropological studies of myth have advanced our understanding of that phenomenon, so certain myths can provide insights into the anthropological perspective that informs theory. The thesis I develop in this essay is consequently that the myth-making mind and the anthropology-making mind have much in common at the level of fundamental symbolic processes. The myth I examine is one told by the Arawak of northwestern Guyana about

Trobriand dance is a key cultural expression and a means of communicating subjectivity in a number of ways: it expresses aspects of kinship, gender, morality, and ideas about modernity and primitivity. In a region with a long history of Christian missions, coupled with a recent 'Revival' brought about by the arrival of Pentecostal forms of worship, certain dances come to be key markers of particular moral positions. Primary among these is the Tapioca Dance, famed far beyond the Trobriands, but problematic in local discourses and practice. This paper examines the ways in which such dances make sexuality public, and why this is such a concern for 'Revived' (and other) Christian Trobriand Islanders.

Mimesis is a powerful tool for apprehending and comprehending alterity. This chapter examines how carvers in the Trobriand Islands appropriate images from outsiders to expand their relational networks. It argues that the creative inventiveness of Trobrianders allows them to imitate foreign forms in their carvings while keeping them intrinsically “Trobriand.” Mimesis reveals ways in which carvings display difference and similarity at the same time, highlighting how for Trobrianders innovation is tradition.

Conference paper presented to Malinowski’s Legacy: One Hundred Years of Anthropology in the Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea Wanigili Centre, Alotau (MBP), Papua New Guinea, 11 - 13th August 2015

When thinking and talking about recent developments in the Massim, Trobriand Islanders look to the past as well as the future. During my field research I found that Trobrianders consistently evoked the past in myriad ways, and showed an abiding interest in learning as much about the histories of the region as they could. Many people thought, spoke and acted as historians in their own right – collecting, discussing and analysing the narrative and material past with enthusiasm, and pressing me for historical materials not presently accessible in the islands. More pragmatically, the past is invoked in a variety of contexts for different ends, such as settling land disputes or judging the ‘authenticity’ of ‘traditional’ performance. This leads me to conclude that any discussion of the present concerns of Massim people can be enriched by widening the analytical frame to take in not just the present and future, but also the pasts that inform them. In working to bring anthropological understandings of the area into closer articulation with pressing local concerns, we might ask two questions: What can history do for anthropologists? And what can historically equipped anthropologists do for people in the Massim? The archive can add depth to understandings of continuity and transformation in any domain, and the ‘repatriation’ of archival materials can help Massim people gain greater control over their own histories, with corollary benefits for their guests. A few concrete examples will hopefully provoke conversation on what pasts are important for Islanders, and why; and speculation on what kinds of constructive collaboration might best accommodate a wide diversity of present-day Massim and academic perspectives.

In the Trobriand Islands of today’s Papua New Guinea, the coconut has long been mainly an accompaniment to yams – the primary staple food, central cultural icon and source of much of the chiefs’ economic and political power. From the early 19th century, surplus yams were traded to Europeans operating in a regional economy, but the Assistant Resident Magistrates (ARMs) of the Australian government of colonial Papua in charge of the islands overlooked this industry in favour of copra, a global commodity. Beginning with a wholesale planting campaign in the 1910s and continuing with a ‘native plantation scheme’ in the 1920s, the ARMS exhorted Trobrianders to take time away from their beloved gardens to plant and tend coconut trees. Traces of resistance to this overzealous project come mainly through the voice and actions of Paramount Chief To’uluwa of Omarakana, as recorded by the ARMs in patrol reports and station journals. The colonial vision of a copra-based link to the global economy was dimmed by a fall in commodity prices in the mid 1920s, whilst the regional yam trade persisted for decades more. Hence the indigenous yam prevailed over the colonial coconut in a symbolic struggle for primacy in the islands, and the yam remains a symbol of a vibrant traditional Trobriand culture to this day.

THE CONTEXTS OF TRANSLATION ACCORDING TO BRONISŁAW MALINOWSKI

Describing spells, Bronisław Malinowski distinguishes general commentary (sociological context, ritual context, structure, dogmatic context, mode of recitation) and linguistic commentary. It gives him an opportunity to develop his ethnographic theory of language, which makes an outstanding contribution to a general theory of culture.

Citation (formatted-apa)
Szczerbowski, T. (2004). Konteksty przekładu według Bronisława Malinowskiego. W: P. Fast (red.), Socjologiczne aspekty przekładu (s. 53–62). Katowice: Śląsk.

Slides de apresentação realizada no âmbito da disciplina Teorias Antropológicas I, ministrada pelo Prof. Dr. Ricardo Cid Fernandes no curso de Mestrado em Antropologia e Arqueologia do Programa de Pós-graduação em Antropologia e Arqueologia da UFPR. Capítulos do livro "Argonautas do Pacífico Ocidental", de Bronislaw Malinowski (1922), foram divididos entre a turma para apresentação. Fiquei responsável pelos  capítulos 14 e 16. Aqui apresento o capítulo 16, que traz detalhes sobre uma etapa do Kula realizada na Ilha de Dobu, Papua Nova Guiné.

Comparative analysis of gift-giving in Homer and in the Trobriand Islands, showing that within an institution notionally dominated by forms and attitudes of generosity, it is possible and acceptable to seek to make a profit out of the exchange of gifts.

STEREOTYPES AND TRANSLATIONS, OR CULTURALLY MOTIVATED "LIES"
The Italian formula traduttore — traditore is one of the most perpetuated stereotypes in translation studies. Translators who render the Bible into exotic languages, such as Oceanic or Papuan, are not traitors. They remind us of white liars whose activity is culturally motivated.
Citation (formatted-apa)
Szczerbowski, T. (2003). Stereotypy i przekłady, czyli „kłamstwa” motywowane kulturowo. W: U. Kropiwiec, M. Filipowicz‐Rudek, J. Konieczna‐Twardzikowa (red.), Między oryginałem a przekładem. Stereotyp a przekład (s. 23–33). Kraków: Księgarnia Akademicka.

Anthropology's scope is broader than its public, often limited to other anthropologists, while those who share their knowledge in the field with the ethnographer are too often cut off from anthropological debates about that knowledge. The anthropology conference, seen as research practice, proves successful in readmitting ethnographic subjects into anthropological dialogues. A symposium held in 2015 in Alotau, Papua New Guinea, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Malinowski's arrival in the Massim region, demonstrates how Massim peoples transcend anthropologists' discursive presentations by using images, objects, and performances, diluting, along the way, anthropology's hierarchical control. Anthropology conferences are for anthropologists This article is concerned with one particular instance of anthropological practice: the academic conference. It focuses on the relations that are established between researchers and their public, but also between researchers and the researched, and questions the goals of the conference as well as the means to achieve those goals. The article argues for a more inclusive anthropological practice in line with recent calls to open up the discipline to more dialogic, multidisciplinary research frameworks (Brown 2017;

‘FOR EVERYTHING ITS SEASON’ IN TRANSLATION INTO THE KIRIWINA LANGUAGE

Citation (formatted-apa)
Szczerbowski, T. (2003). "Wszystko ma swój czas" w przekładzie na język Kiriwiny. W: I. Bobrowski (red.), Anabasis. Prace ofiarowane Profesor Krystynie Pisarkowej (s. 309–316). Kraków: Wydawnictwo LEXIS.

In Making the Modern Primitive, the paradisiacal underpinnings that embody tropical islands, islandness and islanders are discernible. The predictable and increasing shifts toward embracing the tourism economy is now widespread in the Pacific Islands, and that tourism has made its way to the Trobriands is no surprise given its location between Southeast Asia and Australia and its proximity to the growing cruise-line pathways in the region. The commodification of culture depicted in Making the Modern Primitive is unassailable in tourist destinations across the globe, and criticism of it as an agent of damaging and long-lasting acculturation is countered with praise that the economic and symbolic value attributed to culture is its saving grace. However, the risk of treating cultural tourism and its attendant effects superficially and simply as a transaction between hosts and guests is immense, as is any attempt to unpack the complexities surrounding matters of cultural authenticity and what is traditional. Making the Modern Primitive tries to find the sweet spot between the anthropological lens the author looks through and something that is more relatable to cultural tourism and the pursuit of the spectacular and entertaining and at times profane.

MacCARTHY, Michelle: Making the Modern Primitive: Cultural Tourism in the Trobriand Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2016. 270 pp., biblio., illus. US$68.00 (cloth).

In the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), yoyowa (consistently translated as “witches” by English-speaking Trobrianders) are a constant threat, causing illness and death to those who arouse their envy or ire. While some women are widely known to be yoyowa, accusations are never made publicly, and there are no reprisals. People exercise caution when dealing with known or potential yoyowa, and always try to “make them happy,” in a common phrase. Recently, however, with the arrival of Pentecostal Christianity and a broader Revival movement, some Trobriand women who undergo spiritual rebirth have publicly acknowledged their previous status as yoyowa. In this paper, I examine the parallels and paradoxes, as well as the broader implications, of being born again in Trobriand cosmology—first, to become a yoyowa, and later, to reject such a status in favor of being reborn as a true believer in Christ.

TRANSLATION AS THE BEGINNING OF LITERARY HISTORY

Although it is surprising, many tribes and nations have no idea of what could be called the evolution of the world or the evolution of society, an example being the Trobriand Islands. Bronisław Malinowski, who spent there four years (1915-1918), wrote that any idea of epochs in time is absent from their mind; the past is one vast storehouse of events, and the line of demarcation between myth and history does not coincide with any division into definite and distinct periods of time. It reminds of Augustinian views on the present including our memory, sight and expectation. In spite of Kiriwinan folklore, only the Bible translation is the beginning of literary history on the Trobriand Islands, for Buki Pilabumaboma is the first book in Kiriwinan.

Citation (formatted-apa)
Szczerbowski, T. (2002). Przekład jako początek historii literatury. W: P. Fast & K. Żemła (red.), Przekład w historii literatury (s. 9–18). Katowice: Śląsk.

Özet
Toplum karmaşık bir olgudur. Karmaşık olanı anlamaya çalışmak bağlantılar kurmakla bir başka deyişle interdisipliner olmakla mümkündür. Bu noktada kendisine en yakın bilim dalı olan sosyal antropolojiden tarih ve felsefeye kadar birçok bilim dalı sosyolojiyle belli noktalarda kesişmektedir. Günümüz çalışmalarında bu kesişme noktala-rının ön plana çıktığı kesindir. Bu makalede, insan davranışlarının beyindeki son derece kompleks sinirsel süreçlerle ilgili olduğunu savunan nörobiyolojik yaklaşım, 'Trobriand toplumundaki aile' merkezinde ele alınacaktır. Trobriand bölgesi, Papua-Yeni Gine'nin doğusunda bulunan adalar topluluğudur. Bu bölgeyi örneklem olarak seçmemizin sebebi sosyal antropolojinin kuruluşuna yaptığı katkıdır. Sosyal antropoloji, Bronislaw Malinowski'nin Trobriand adalarındaki yaklaşık beş yıllık araştırmaları sonucunda elde ettiği verileri bilimsel sistematiğe uygun şekil-de yayımlaması sonucunda kurulmuştur. Trobriand toplumu, üremede babanın etkisinin olmadığına inanan pür anne merkezlidir. İşin en ilginç yönüyse Malinowski'nin, Trob-riand toplumunda evlilik öncesinde cinsel yaşamın çok rahat olmasına karşın-ki hiçbir korunma da bilinmiyor-evlenmeden hamile kalan birine rastlamadığını belirtmesidir. Bu inanç aşağıdaki sonuçları oluşturmuştur: Anne merkezliliğin sonucunda dayının yüksek konumu, çok eşlilik konusunda reisin ayrıcalığı, belli oranda cinsel serbesti olduğu halde toplumsal statü merkezli evlenme. Tün bunların beyinle (nörobiyolojik yaklaşımla) ilgisi üzerinde soru işareti oluşturmak bu makalenin amacıdır.

Making the Modern Primitive provides an anthropological analysis of the encounter between local residents and tourists in the Trobriand Islands, a place renowned in anthropology and represented in various media as culturally authentic. In such a place, how are ideas about authenticity implicated in creating and representing the self and cultural Others in the context of cultural tourism? Based on long-term fieldwork, Michelle MacCarthy addresses this question by examining four arenas of interaction between Trobriand Islanders and tourists: formal performances, informal village visits, souvenir shopping, and tourist photography. Drawing on both symbolic/interpretive approaches and concepts derived from economic anthropology, she explores the relationship of tourism to the commoditization of culture, the ways in which local residents actively represent and enact “Trobriandness,” and the ways tourists interpret and narrate their experience.
MacCarthy demonstrates how tropes such as primitivity and cultural essentialism are employed in ways that fit with prevailing metanarratives that each side holds about the other. These tropes are reproduced in individual narratives of both tourists’ and Trobrianders’ experiences and in their interpretations (often misconstrued) of the lives of cultural Others with whom they interact. The author analyzes the social dimensions of cross-cultural exchange in the four arenas (performance, village life, souvenirs, and photography) to argue that cultural commodities are conceived of as singularities—a special category that downplays its commodity status in order to generate an increased sense of authenticity and to perpetuate the myth of a “primitive” economy and way of life. In touristic encounters, experience itself is a sort of commodity, but relationships (real or imagined) are central to investing these experiences with meaning and value.

This book contributes new understandings of the role and significance of authenticity in the anthropology of tourism, and its relationship to exchange—that is, how meaning and value are ascribed to the cultural products produced and consumed in the cultural tourism encounter with reference to ideas about what is and isn’t authentic.