Review of 'The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea' by Annette B. Weiner

This book reflects over 15 years of research by Annette B. Weiner on a broad spectrum of subjects concerning Trobriand society and culture. She also researched archives in museums and libraries overseas and in the U.S. Fieldwork has never been simple, but it was her life's deepest experience. She clarified that Trobriand culture is one of the most classic cases, and Trobriand society is one of the anthropological cosmography's 'holy locations.' With a sequence of wonderful texts, Bronislaw Malinowski placed it on the anthropological map. A lifetime ago, he did his fieldwork. Only later did Annette Weiner do hers. Among other things, there are two characteristics that especially differentiate the case study of Professor Weiner. One is that she discovered it as much as it was described by Malinowski. The other is that she has found some stuff that Malinowski has not done and has been able to correct some stuff that Malinowski has misunderstood or ignored. And, of course, she is paying attention to those modifications that took place between her fieldwork moment and his over the sixty years. The Trobrianders are not meant to be a criticism of the fieldwork of Malinowski or a rebuttal of his interpretive statements. Professor Weiner gives us an insight into Trobriand's conduct and cultural understanding that is noteworthy both for its depth and clarity. Annette Weiner brings us to the core of one issue that Malinowski does not address — the significance of women's job, impact, and wealth in determining masculine conduct and Trobriand society's nature.

This book also discusses the connection between authority and death as males and females face the ongoing issue of maintaining hierarchical relationships in the face of failure and decline, each in their own manner, with their own valuables. It is in the efforts to solve these issues that are seen in the origins of Trobriand's resilience to change — for all societal alternatives to the existential issues of authority and death is only partial. She discussed the vitality of Trobriand culture in the first section as Trobrianders confronted the internal changes of the 1980s. Based on her field work on the island of Kiriwina from 1971 to 1982, she presented the fundamental values that are instrumental in shaping these years; they were particularly important because Papua New Guinea was confronted with self-government and national independence. Also this specific period of time has given significant insights into the islands ' previous history while emphasizing the impressive resistance of Trobrianders to foreign interference. A big measure of determination to promote traditional financial and political practices is associated with women's riches and the role wealth plays in men's financial and political lives.

In Chapter 2, it exposes Trobriand's deepest origins of resistance to alter at every death. The rituals surrounding death act as a conservative force that improves the discrepancy between change and tradition as the most valuable items, such as material wealth, soil, and social political relationships. In Chapter 3 returns to the start and examines the various but complementary roles that both men and females perform in the process of birth. These roles have political implications, even in regards to an infant. In Chapter 4 shows how young people's beauty is culturally improved to make beauty itself a strong means of persuasion and seduction. Experimentation with this kind of force finishes in marriage, but it remains a basic challenge for adults to be able to regulate others by affecting their minds.

As Chapter 5 reveals, the strength of one's beauty after marriage is converted from the surface of the skin into one's abilities for the production and control of property objects. These items are then used to improve one's impact with others; and through the circulation of such riches, cognatic kin (relatives by blood) and affinal relationships (relatives by marriage) between males and females are linked to each other in such a manner that affine become like cognates, securing networks of social and political interactions that have the potential for generational continuity.

For chiefs, as Chapter 6 illustrates, these networks are multiplied through their polygoenos marriages, but such marriages only occur when villagers themselves decide that a chief is influential enough to be supported by them. Wealth and the power of persuasion take on even greater importance as chiefs attempt to win fame and consolidate their resources. Also, as Chapter 7 describes, to spread one's fame among others necessitates enormous productive work and the expenditure of huge resources. A death of someone transforms a harvest of youthful energy and excitement into a productive effort of a different order in which men's resources are needed to procure women’s wealth.

In Chapter 8, it explores the attention given to women's wealth and why this wealth remains such a conservative force in Trobriand society. In the vast exchanges of women's wealth that mark the end of the major mourning period and see how men, including chiefs, remain dependent on women and their valuables. In Chapter 9 makes explicit these concerns as men follow their interisland kula exchanges. When men, especially chiefs, are away from the demands made on by the need for women's wealth, they have the opportunity to write the history of their own immorality the shells they exchange with others. Kula is not a mechanical give and take of one arm shell for another; rather it involves a complex set of exchanges that build toward achieving strong partners and the highest- ranking valuables. Kula players individually search for gains in the face of the unrelenting forecasts of losses so that even the very best players are limited in what they can achieve.

In the concluding chapter, Annette returns to the subject of how objects inform the most important stages in a person life. The power and pathos embedded in the most valued objects make us understand how fragile are the social and political relations that define who people are and where they belong. Death destroys not only individual lives but also whole complexes of relationships. Ultimately, men's valuables make no inroads on women's valuables, and men's searches for fame cannot replace their matrilineal roots, which remain tied to women and death. The eternal sociological conflict between individual will and societal demands is exposed as Trobrianders, like people everywhere, ultimately fail to conquer time. Yet even with the limitations inherent in the objects at hand, Trobrianders use them in the most dynamic way possible to define who they are in relation to their kinship identities, to their own individual fame and dominance, and to the foreign influences that other people bring to their islands. Their success, although always in danger of being undermined, is an important and by no means small achievement.

Before Annette made her first trip to Trobriands in 1971, her fieldwork spanned the years before and after the independence. Since 1975 despites reaching beyond smaller islands, the Trobrians have been part of Papua New Guinea's nation state, one of the biggest South Pacific developing nations in size and population. The country has been divided into two territories in the last century: the southern part which included the Trobriand Islands was called the Papua Territory and the northern half, the New Guinea Territory. Papua was first colonized by the United Kingdom and then transferred to Australia in 1904; asserted northern half ownership. With the defeat of Germany in the First World War, this territory also came under Australian rule.

A Following the end of World War II, the United Nations played a key role in getting Australia grant independence as a united country to both regions. In 1964, the House of Assembly held the first national elections for seats, and in 1971 a national flag was adopted and the country's official name changed to Papua New Guinea. Two years later, self-government was established, with Australia still maintaining economic control over defense and foreign policy. In 1975, full independence, was proclaimed.

Kiriwina's large, kite-shaped island, Kiriwina Papua New Guinea, which is the most prominent socially and politically, is 25 miles long and 2 to 8 miles wide. It has a present 12,000-strong population living in 60 villages. The population is in the low hundreds on the other three islands, with less than eight villages on any island. Foreign traders, whalers, and other entrepreneurs occasionally anchored offshore in the nineteenth century, exploring the islands, buying local people food and artifacts. Until 1894, when the first Methodist missionary arrived in Kiriwina, no European settled in the region. The name 'Trobriand' became the political designation for these islands with colonization, although significant cultural variations give each population of the island its own unique personality. Everyone speaks some version of Kilivila despite the many differences in dialect even within an island population. On Kiriwina Island, five dialects are spoken, corresponding to the main geographical divisions.

They stay warm and humid throughout the year due to their place just below the equator, with frequent rainfall. On Kiriwina there are lovely sandy beaches on the eastern and southern coasts bordered by rough coral cliffs rising 8 to 10 feet high. The land region is diminishing towards the south and the mangrove swamps are replacing the cliffs. The bulk of the population lives in the island's southern half, and the biggest region of land consists of swampy soil encircled by wealthy garden lands. There are no rivers or streams, and the swamps are drained only by tidal creeks. Fresh water is provided by caves along the coral outcroppings and springs on the edge of the swamps and along the coast. Reefs stretch up to 6 miles offshore, providing great outdoor and lagoon fishing. High waves often render long-distance canoe travel hazardous during the two primary seasons when the northwestern and southeastern traffic winds blow, but tiny aircraft and motor launches make access to the Trobriands simpler than it once was.

The Trobriand Islands are one of the most 'sacred locations' of anthropology, having achieved academic fame through the seminal fieldwork of Malinowski. The Trobriand Island people are in command of their own communication with other individuals, and sometimes it can be an illusion with the outside world, but it is a concept that Trobrianders believe in and live by. Trobrianders ability to transform external experiences into inner objectives and histories forms Trobriand's key life rhythms. Understanding the actions of kula exchanges, the use of magic, and the rituals that mark the significant transitional moments in the lives of each person, including the rituals surrounding death, enables them discern how people attempt to regulate others as a manner to create their own assistance and authority. Then it becomes essential to know the intimate relationship between individuals and the stuff they value most— such as kula shells, women's wealth, and even magic spells— as the achievement markers in such accomplishments. This allows us to analyze the logic of power that creates a hierarchy of relationships between young and old, between women and men, between chiefs and commoners, between the living and the dead

Two Major Aspect in Life: The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea

One of the most important themes I would like to focus on about adolescent and their sexuality Children start playing erotic games with each other and imitating adult seductive behaviors by the moment they’re seven or eight years old. They start pursuing sexual partner in earnest four or five years later. Young individuals often change partners, first experiment with one individual and then experiment with another. A rendezvous can be arranged on the beach or in a secluded location away from the gardens and the village, but these are generally short meetings with no engagement to further conferences. Young individuals generally do not sleep in the homes of their relatives during this moment. They migrate to a neighboring tiny house or a few doors away, the hamlet's young boys living in one room and young girls living in another. In this manner, they have the liberty to take their lovers to their own sleeping quarters. Older villagers who say their potential as productive adults are watching young individuals during adolescences. These young individuals are referred to as 'small boys' or “small girls” until they are thirty. They will only be regarded adults when villagers are married and have kids and are fully committed to financial and political efforts.

There’s no traditional wedding ceremony in the Trobriands. One day, when the young lady stays in his hamlet instead of leaving the house of her lover before sunrise. The couples are sitting together in the morning waiting for the mom of the bride to bring them cooked yams. Because these acts render a marriage official, the reason that such a powerful taboo exists about lovers being seen together in the same house or eating meals. If the girl's mom and mother's brother cooks yams rapidly and carries them to her in a rove of her choice. The marriage is formally acknowledged when she and her lover consume these yams together. If the kin of the young woman disagrees with the decision, her mom and dad rush to the hamlet and ask their daughter to leave with them. They take her out of the house and carry her away from the village if the young lady refuses to go. Yet the girl can still have the final word, Annette was told how one girl, stayed inside the house of her parents, crying and refusing to eat any food until they agreed. Another young girl decided to marry a guy her mom chose in another situation, but she was so dissatisfied that she ran away from her husband after two months and returned to her own hamlet. She arranged a secret conference with him and was determined to marry her initial option. They both went g to the beach together and live there for a couple of days. Once they live together publicly, the marriage must be accepted and respected by their parents. In this manner, even chiefs whose marriages are arranged for political alliances enter into certain marriages for love.

The Connection

First

Within the text The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea, there are connections associated to Cultural Psychology by Steven J. Heine. In preparation for walking, both young women and men from the Trobrainds Islands spend a lot of time adorning themselves, it is essential to look appealing and act in a way that conveys confidence and fearlessness. This attitude is guided through self concept because it shaped by cultural practices that guide the values, beliefs and achievements of people

Second

Another connection is the ethic of community meaning a system of values that emphasizes the role of people in a society. For instance the way babies from Trobriand receive plenty of attention, they are constantly cradled in the arms of their relatives and other villagers, kissed, hugged, teased, and fondled. Women and men, young and old, even kids become interchangeably caretakers on demand. Mothers nurse their children, never enabling them to weep if they are hungry. Men with young kids walk around the village holding their hips straddled with a baby or a toddler, often with another kid in tow. However, in Trobriand's eyes, government accountability for the child's financial care falls on the dad. His ability to provide food and wealth for his kids is also noted by his wife and her family and other villagers.

Third

The last connection between the two texts is the collectivistic cultures in the Trobriand Island meaning cultures with many methods, institutions and customs encourages people to focus on collective objectives rather more personal ones. Such as the trial period for the first year of a marriage is to find out how well the couple is getting along and how dedicated their family is to the marriage. During this moment, the way the pair eats yams together again indicates the meaning of yams as a statement about their marriages.

References

1. Weiner, A. B. (2002). The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea. New York, NY: Thomson/Wadsworth.
2. Heine, S. J. (2012). Cultural psychology. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.