Abstract
This chapter describes—
-
how the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea used to build their large seagoing masawa canoes and make their sails;
-
what forms of different knowledge and expertise they needed during various stages of the construction processes;
-
how this knowledge was socially distributed; and
-
the social implications of all the joint communal activities necessary before a new canoe could be launched.
In the last 30 years or so, cultural and social change has been initiated by a growing capitalist economy and then catalyzed first by missionaries and finally by globalization effects. It has resulted in a gradual loss of the complex distributed knowledge of how to make a masawa canoe and its sails in most of the village communities on the Trobriand Islands. The implications of this loss for the culture of the Trobriand Islanders, their social construction of reality, and their cognitive capacities are outlined and critically discussed.
Kwatuyavesa waga, Turn round the sail of the canoe,
rakeda milaveta! its course is to the open sea!
(Oruvekoya song cycle, first stanza)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This chapter is based on more than 40 months of field research on the Trobriand Islands. I thank the National and Provincial Governments in Papua New Guinea; the Institute for PNG Studies, especially Don Niles; and the National Research Institute, especially James Robins, for their permission for and assistance with my research projects. I express my great gratitude to the people of the Trobriand Islands and, above all, to the inhabitants of Tauwema and my consultants for their hospitality, friendship, and patient cooperation over all these years. Without their help, none of my work on the language of the Trobriand Islanders (Kilivila) and on the Trobriand culture would have been possible.
- 2.
The names of the canoes and, in parentheses, the names of their owners were Seguvagava (Nusai), Tovivila (Tosulala), Mogerai (Bulasa), Meraga (Topiesi), Dedayasi (Tosobu), Vaneyaba (Moligogu), Genare’u (Taidyeli), and Topasi (Tomtava). All these canoes used traditional sails made of pandanus leaves. The orthography of Kilivila is based on Senft (1986).
- 3.
I also heavily rely on the descriptions of the masawa canoes and their construction as recorded in Malinowski (1922/1978, pp. 105–146).
- 4.
Gerrits (1974) also mentions, documents, and describes burial canoes of the Trobriands (on Kitava) and the Marshall Bennet Islands (on Iwa). These objects, called nalio’ema, were small coffins carved like miniature canoes. However, even his informants did not “remember anybody to have been buried in this way” (Gerrits 1974, p. 229). I have never heard anything about these canoes on the Trobriands.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
Munn (1977, p. 42) mentions a canoe origin myth on Gawa, on the northern tip of Elcho Island in the Arnhem Land of Northern Territory, Australia.
- 8.
The tokway can cause sicknesses by inserting small sharp and pointed objects into persons’ bodies. There are magicians who know extraction magic and produce the inserted objects at the end of their magical healing session (see Schiefenhövel 1986). Tokway can also have names. The Trobriand Islanders’ inventory of string figure games (ninikula) contains a figure that refers to a tokway called Tokemtuya (see Senft and Senft 1986, pp. 149–150). See also Munn (1977, p. 41).
- 9.
The masawa that was exhibited in Berlin in 1985, the Meraga, was 5.93 m (19 ft 6 in.) long, 1.08 m (3 ft 6 in.) high, and 1.45 m (4 ft 9 in.) wide. It was built in Tauwema, owned by chief Kilagola, and acquired for the Ethnographic Museum in Berlin–Dahlem by Wulf Schiefenhövel in 1983.
- 10.
This logic was obvious to Tosulala, which is probably why he did not mention the spell in his description.
- 11.
Malinowski (1922/1978, p. 133) notes that “parallel with the process of hollowing out, the other parts of the canoe are made ready.” This observation does not seem to hold for what is done in Tauwema.
- 12.
Neither Tosulala nor Kilagola mention this kind of magic. The incantation I received from Yoya in 1989 belongs to the types of formulae that are used to make canoes sail swiftly. However, magicians usually cast this magic on the canoe before it starts to sail away. The following account by Tosulala differs substantially from Malinowski’s (1922/1978, pp. 134–144) description of the next stages of constructing a canoe. Malinowski mentions that the next stage commences with another magical rite (the Katuliliva tabuya). Thereafter, the prow boards are mounted on the dugout, which is ceremonially launched for the first time. After magicians have recited a number of different formulae over the dugout, it is ceremonially washed and heaved ashore, its parts tied together, and the assembled canoe caulked.
- 13.
Tosulala forgot to mention that the four prow boards (the lagim and tabuya) are first put in place.
- 14.
- 15.
Malinowski (1922/1978, pp. 139–140) mentions three more magical rites that have to be performed before the canoe is painted. They are “exorcisms against evil influences” (p. 139). In the Vakasulu the magician must prepare a veritable witch’s cauldron containing “the wings of a bat, the nest of a very small bird,…some dried bracken leaves, a bit of cotton fluff, and some lalang grass,” which he subsequently burns beneath the canoe, an act that has a cleansing and speed-giving influence. The Vaguri is an exorcism in which the magician strikes the body of the canoe with a wand, expelling evil witchery. In the Kaytapena waga rite the magician puts a spell on a coconut-leaf torch and fumigates the canoe with it. This rite, too, cleanses the canoe and increases its speed.
- 16.
It is interesting to compare Tosulala’s account with Malinowski’s (1922/1978, pp. 105–150) description of how canoes are built on the Trobriands. Tosulala’s description and my morpheme-interlinearized transcription of it, along with Mokeilobu’s description of how to make a sail and my morpheme-interlinearized transcription of that explanation, can be read and heard at http://www.mpi.nl/people/senft-gunter/research
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
- 20.
In my long project of documenting the indigenous knowledge of the Trobriand Islanders, this chapter is the first work in which I deal with Trobriand canoes and the art of making a masawa canoe.
References
Baddeley, A. D. (1990). Human memory: Theory and practice. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Baddeley, A. D. (1999). Essentials of human memory. Hove: Psychology Press.
Breidbach, W. (1988). Die Schiffsbezeichnungen des Alt-und Mittelhochdeutschen: Ein onomasiologisches und etymologisches Glossar [Ship terms in Old and Middle High German: An onomasiological and etymological glossary]. Arbeitspapier Nr. 6 (Neue Folge). Cologne: Universität zu Köln, Institut für Sprachwissenschaft.
Campbell, S. F. (2002). The art of kula. Oxford: Berg.
De Groot, A. D. (1965). Thought and choice in chess. The Hague: Mouton.
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. (1989). Human ethology. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
Finney, B. (2006). Ocean Sailing Canoes. In K. R. Howe (Ed.), Vaka moana: Voyages of the ancestor: The discovery and settlement of the Pacific (pp. 100–153). Honolulu: The University of Hawai’i press.
Gerrits, G. J. M. (1974). Burial canoes and canoe-burials in the Trobriand and Marshal Bennett Islands (Melanesia). Anthropos, 69, 224–231.
Helfrich, K. (1984). Boote aus Melanesien und Australien [Canoes of Melanesia and Australia]. In G. Koch (Ed.), Boote aus aller Welt (pp. 33–54). Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
Hornell, J. (1991). Canoes of Oceania: Three volumes combined into one. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press. (Original work published 1936–1938).
Höver, O. (1957). Das Lateinsegel—Velum latinum—Velum laterale [The Latin sail]. Anthropos, 52, 637–640.
Malinowski, B. (1965). Coral gardens and their magic: The description of gardening (2 Vols.). London: Allen & Unwin. (Original work published 1935).
Malinowski, B. (1974). Magic, science and religion and other essays. London: Souvenir Press. (Original work published 1948).
Malinowski, B. (1978). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1922).
Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81–97.
Miller, G. A. (1962). Psychology: The science of mental life. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Munn, N. D. (1977). The spatiotemporal transformations of Gawa canoes. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 33, 39–53.
Nayak, G. (2008). The wisdom of ‘tied logs’: Traditional boats of India’s Orissa coast during the colonial era. International Institute for Asian Studies, Newsletter, 47, 22.
Pule, R. T. (1983). Binabina: The making of a Gela war canoe. Suva: Solomon Islands Centre and The University of the South Pacific.
Schiefenhövel, W. (1986). Extraktionszauber: Domäne der Heilkundigen [Magic of extraction: Domains of healers]. In W. Schiefenhövel, J. Schuler, & R. Pöschl (Eds.), Traditionelle Heilkundige—Ärztliche Persönlichkeiten im Vergleich der Kulturen und medizinischen Systeme (pp. 353–372) [Sonderband]. Braunschweig: Friedrich Vieweg & Son.
Schnepper, H. (1908). Die Namen der Schiffe und Schiffsteile im Altenglischen. Eine kulturgeschichtlich-etymologische Untersuchung [An etymology of the names of ships and their parts in Old English]. Kiel: H. Fiencke.
Scoditti, G. M. G. (1990). Kitawa: A linguistic and aesthetic analysis of visual art in Melanesia. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Senft, G. (1985). Weyeis Wettermagie: Eine ethnolinguistische Untersuchung von fünf wettermagischen Formeln auf den Trobriand Inseln [Weyei’s weather magic: An ethnolinguistic study of five formulae of weather magic on the Trobriand Islands]. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 110(1), 67–90 & 110(2), Erratum (2–4).
Senft, G. (1986). Kilivila: The language of the Trobriand Islanders. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Senft, G. (1992). As time goes by …: Changes observed in Trobriand Islanders’ culture and language, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea. In T. Dutton (Ed.), Culture change, language change: Case studies from Melanesia (pp. 67–89). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Senft, G. (1993). Review of the book Kitava a linguistic and aesthetic analysis of visual art in Melanesia by Giancario M. G. Scoditti. Journal of Pragmatics, 19, 281–290. doi:10.1016/0378-2166(93)90033-L.
Senft, G. (1994). Darum gehet hin und lehret alle Völker: Mission, Kultur- und Sprachwandel am Beispiel der Trobriand-Insulaner von Papua-Neuguinea [Thus go and teach all peoples: Mission, culture, and change of language as exemplified by the Trobriand Islanders of Papua New Guinea]. In P. Stüben (Ed.), Seelenfischer: Mission, Stammesvölker und Ökologie (pp. 71–91). Gießen: Focus.
Senft, G. (1997a). Magical conversation on the Trobriand Islands. Anthropos, 92, 369–391.
Senft, G. (1997b). Magic, missionaries, and religion: Some observations from the Trobriand Islands. In T. Otto & A. Borsboom (Eds.), Cultural dynamics of religious change in Oceania (pp. 45–58). Leiden: KITLV Press.
Senft, G. (2001). ‘Kevalikuliku’: Earthquake magic from the Trobriand Islands (for unshakeables). In A. Pawley, M. Ross, & D. Tryon (Eds.), The boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian linguistics in honour of Tom Dutton (pp. 323–331). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Senft, G. (2005). Review of the book The Art of Kula by Shirley F. Campbell. Anthropos, 100, 247–249.
Senft, G. (2010). Culture change—Language change: Missionaries and moribund varieties of Kilivila. In G. Senft (Ed.), Endangered Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal languages: Essays on language documentation, archiving and revitalization (pp. 69–95). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Senft, G. (2011). The Tuma underworld of love: Erotic and other narrative songs of the Trobriand Islanders and their spirits of the dead. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Senft, B., & Senft, G. (1986). Ninikula—Fadenspiele auf den Trobriand Inseln, Papua Neuguinea: Untersuchungen zum Spiele-Repertoire unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Spielbegleitenden Texte [Ninikula—String figures on the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea: Studies on the game repertoire with special consideration of texts accompanying games]. Baessler Archiv, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde NF, 34, 93–235.
Thompson, J., & Taylor, A. (1980). Polynesian canoes and navigation. Laie: Brigham Young University, Hawaii Campus, Institute for Polynesian Studies.
Whakataka-Brightwell, M. (1994). Waka. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Senft, G. (2016). “Masawa—bogeokwa si tuta!”: Cultural and Cognitive Implications of the Trobriand Islanders’ Gradual Loss of Their Knowledge of How to Make a Masawa Canoe. In: Meusburger, P., Freytag, T., Suarsana, L. (eds) Ethnic and Cultural Dimensions of Knowledge. Knowledge and Space, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21900-4_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21900-4_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21899-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-21900-4
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)