Trobriand Research Articles

Total adiponectin in indigenous Melanesians on Kitava.

Experimental and small human studies have indicated that high total adiponectin levels have beneficial cardiometabolic effects. In contrast, however, high total adiponectin levels are also associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in thoroughly adjusted epidemiological studies. To gain further insight into these seemingly contradictory results, we report results on total adiponectin from the indigenous Melanesian population of Kitava, Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, where an apparent absence of cardiometabolic disease has been previously reported. Fasting levels of serum total adiponectin were measured cross-sectionally in ≥40-year-old Kitavans (n = 102) and Swedish controls matched for age and sex (n = 108). Multivariable linear regression was used for the analysis of associations with total adiponectin when controlled for group, sex, smoking, hypertension and/or type 2 diabetes, age, and body mass index. Total adiponectin was lower for Kitavans compared to Swedish controls (Median [Mdn] 4.6 μg/mL, range 1.0-206 μg/mL and Mdn 9.7 μg/mL, range 3.1-104 μg/mL, respectively, r = .64, p < .001). Lower total adiponectin was associated with Kitavan group, male sex (only in Swedish controls), smoking (only in Kitavans and Swedish controls combined), younger age (not in Swedish controls), higher BMI, lower total, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) (only in Kitavans and Swedish controls combined), and non-HDL cholesterol, and higher anti-PC IgG (only in Kitavans and Swedish controls combined). Total adiponectin in Kitavans was significantly lower than in Swedish controls.

Malinowski in njegov formativni prispevek k ameriški folkloristiki

Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942) was a foundational force in the development of functionalist theory in the discipline of anthropology. Based on intensive fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands, his pragmatic theory stimulated much discussion and debate in anthropological circles. Lesser known, however, is the influence that Malinowski had on the development of modern performance studies in the United States among folklore scholars. This research note focuses on Malinowski’s writings concerning the language of myth and magic, since these were the aspects of his work that appealed most to American scholars of performance in the 1970s.

“You Speak Ukrainian Very Well”. Language Encounters during Ethnographic Fieldwork

Some students of anthropology must be familiar with passages from Bronisław Malinowski’s work (1981), in which, based on his personal field experience gained in the Trobriand Islands, he formulated guidelines and postulates defining a new type of research method in social anthropology. One of the most important aspects of Malinowski’s methodological manifesto was drawing attention to the fact that the language of the studied community is a necessary tool. Malinowski strongly emphasised that ethnographers cannot explore the culture of the studied communities, and especially their “spirit”, without knowing the language of the local people. Thus, the ability to speak the respondents’ language, in addition to long-term research, became a rubric for ethnographic studies. In this article, the starting point for the reflection on ethnographic presence in the field is the language and the ethnographer’s level of linguistic (in)competence. Using my own research experience as an example, I show that the language of locals spoken by ethnographers is not only a tool for communication with fieldwork partners, but also that the very use of this language and the level of its competence or the use of its specific variants can become, if ethnographic reflexivity is maintained, the subject of observation and reflection, revealing selected aspects of the explored community and its culture.

Magic and Spells in &lt;em&gt;Buffy the Vampire Slayer&lt;/em&gt; (1997-2003)

Magic and Spells in &lt;em&gt;Buffy the Vampire Slayer&lt;/em&gt; (1997-2003)

“It Will Be Like a Town Here, Things Are Really Coming Up!”: Inequality in Village-Based Cruise Ship Tourism in the Trobriand Islands

Cruise ship tourism is a major player in the international tourism industry. This article examines the sociocultural ramifications of large-scale cruise ship tourism in the context of the Trobriand Islands, where unequal access to both the benefits and problematic aspects of this kind of tourism have implications for the reciprocal relations that are embedded in Trobriand society. It considers the “wicked problems” inherent in the discourses and practice of tourism as development, addressing the paradoxes and complexities that arise, especially where inequalities (between Trobriand Islanders and visitors and among Trobrianders from across the archipelago) are most apparent and difficult to resolve.

A campaign of mass drug administration with artemisinin-piperaquine to antimalaria in Trobriand Islands

We conducted a study on the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2018 to verify the safety and efficacy of the artemisinin-piperaquine (AP) mass drug administration (MDA) campaign in regions with moderate to high mixed malaria transmission. Based on the natural topography of the Trobriand Islands, 44,855 residents from 92 villages on the islands were enrolled and divided into the main and outer islands. Three rounds of MDA were conducted using grid-based management. The primary endpoint was the coverage rate. Adverse reactions, parasitemia, and malaria morbidity were the secondary endpoints. There were 36,716 people living in 75 villages on the main island, and the MDA coverage rate was 92.58–95.68%. Furthermore, 8,139 people living in 17 villages on the outer islands had a coverage rate of 94.93–96.11%. The adverse reactions were mild in both groups, and parasitemia decreased by 87.2% after one year of surveillance. The average annual malaria morbidity has decreased by 89.3% after the program for four years. High compliance and mild adverse reactions indicated that the MDA campaign with AP was safe. The short-term effect is relatively ideal, but the evidence for long-term effect evaluation is insufficient.

"It Will Be Like a Town Here, Things Are Really Coming Up!": Inequality in Village-Based Cruise Ship Tourism in the Trobriand Islands

Abstract: Cruise ship tourism is a major player in the international tourism industry. This article examines the sociocultural ramifications of large-scale cruise ship tourism in the context of the Trobriand Islands, where unequal access to both the benefits and problematic aspects of this kind of tourism have implications for the reciprocal relations that are embedded in Trobriand society. It considers the "wicked problems" inherent in the discourses and practice of tourism as development, addressing the paradoxes and complexities that arise, especially where inequalities (between Trobriand Islanders and visitors and among Trobrianders from across the archipelago) are most apparent and difficult to resolve.

Queer Desire and the Anthropological Imagination: Randolph Stow and Bronislaw Malinowski in the Trobriand Islands

Queer Desire and the Anthropological Imagination: Randolph Stow and Bronislaw Malinowski in the Trobriand Islands

Strange mythologies: cultural and linguistic opacity in Argonauts of the Western Pacific

ABSTRACT During the years he spent conducting fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands, Bronislaw Malinowski became convinced that foreign cultures should be studied in their entirety, as fully integrated, “organic” structures. In what follows, I explore his attempt to achieve this objective, with regard to a specific cultural practice, in Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922). I begin by discussing his use of certain tropes, discursive techniques, and narratorial modes that are more often associated with the genres of travel writing and adventure fiction. I then address his conviction that even the most mundane features of social and cultural life carry ethnographic value, allowing the anthropologist to produce a comprehensive overview of any given culture. As I argue, however, this totalizing impulse is frustrated on more than one occasion in Argonauts, when Malinowski encounters various “opacities” that cannot be so easily assimilated into ethnographic discourse, thus revealing the limits of the very omniscience that he claims to be pursuing.

Conus armshells in British New Guinea: the effects of economic change on cross-cultural engagement

In late nineteenth century British New Guinea armshells made from conus shells were an essential element of ceremonial exchange among communities resident along the southern coast and in the islands of the Massim region. A comparative analysis of the size and nature of decoration on conus armshells within the Official and Personal collections assembled by Sir William MacGregor, Administrator and Lieutenant Governor (1888–1898) illustrates the effects of economic change on the availability of objects used to broker cross-cultural exchanges. The abundance of trade goods available to local communities combined with high rates of inflation in the number of armshells required for marriage payments in the region around Port Moresby led to a severe shortage of these valuables. In the Trobriand Islands, which were experiencing an economic boom due to the high demand for pearls by western traders, large valuable objects used in the Kula ceremonial exchange system were also rarely given to outsiders. This study illustrates the impact of varying social and economic conditions on local decisions about social engagements involving cultural valuables.

The Kula of the Gospels: Christianity, Magic, and Exchange in the Trobriand Islands

The Kula of the Gospels: Christianity, Magic, and Exchange in the Trobriand Islands

Born again, again: Witchcraft, Pentecostal conversions, and spiritual rebirth in the Trobriand Islands

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.

Conceptual Results of the Practice of Re-reading and Rethinking of Ruth Benedict’s Patterns of Culture

Ruth Benedict’s Patterns of Culture has a long history of professional criticism by cultural anthropologists. Still, at the beginning of the 1990s, appeared singular attempts of critical rethinking of the concept of patterns of culture, which were provided with appropriate reconstruction. The initiative belonged to P. Bock and S. Leavitt. Other instances of critical analysis came from attempts to generalize the phenomenon of re-reading the works of Ruth Benedict. In this article those rare initiatives of ‘critical re-reading’ are represented by the paper by B. Babcock and J. Boon. As an analytical unit for reviewing B. Babcock’s academic exposition of conceptual considerations and criticisms, we chose the description of positive perception by Ruth Benedict of the idea from W. Dilthey that we have no grounds for hoping to get any eventual categorical form of rationalization of life from philosophy. As the textual analysis has shown, Ruth Benedict picked this postulation of W. Dilthey’s to block the effect of ‘final’ apologetical theses for support and acceptance of functional descriptions of living archaic cultures of Trobriand Islands and Mainland of Melanesia by B. Malinowski as a template for description of any culture. Regarding the attachment of gestalt psychology implications to existing apologetic arguments for presentation of the mentioned functional descriptions of living archaic cultures as a sample for description of any living culture, the multiplicative meaning of Dilthey’s thesis for Ruth Benedict becomes clear. This multiplicative assignment of Dilthey’s argument shows that in critical reconstruction by P. Bock and S. Leavitt gestalt psychology implications were incautiously presented as a horizon for inclusion of the ideas of configuration, individuality, and culture into the concept of pattern of culture. Concurrently, J. Boon managed to demonstrate that descriptions of antagonism of Indian tribes of Pueblo and Plain cultures contain no depictions of internal testing of one culture by the other. Therefore, a full description of these cultures antagonism as opposition of Apollonian and Dionysian patterns of Indian tribes of Pueblo and Plain culture made up the focal matter of ‘dispositional description’, which is an important methodological achievement of Ruth Benedict.

Trobriand Tales, Kwanebuyee Kilivila

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 preserve 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.

Winter Pasture: One Woman's Journey with China's Kazakh Herders by Li Juan

BOOKS IN REVIEW LI JUAN Li Juan Winter Pasture: One Woman’s Journey with China’s Kazakh Herders Trans. Jack Hargreaves & Yan Yan. New York. Astra House. 2021. 304 pages. READING WINTER PASTURE, Li Juan’s account of her time with shepherds in the foothills of the Altai Mountains, I was reminded of Polish anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski. In the early twentieth century, Malinowski traveled to the Trobriand Islands to live and play among the locals, making notes while paddling between islets on outrigger canoes to observe intricate gift-giving ceremonies. His experiences, captured in his 1922 book Argonauts of the Western Pacific, established a new kind of methodology for ethnographers and writers alike. Suddenly, it wasn’t enough to simply observe quietly from the bushes, as one might a clutch of birds: those strange beings on the fringes of Western society were people too. How much an observer understood became linked with just how dirty they were willing to get their hands. Since Malinowski, the rule has been: you must not only go, you must do. And do Li Juan does. For three months in the harsh winter of northwestern China, she shovels sheep shit, hems clothes, and throws herself up onto camels to round up the herd in the blinding cold. The work is hard, the amenities threadbare. Inside the herders ’ home—no more than a burrow dug into the earth—the family huddles around a stove, eats boiled meat, and shares a sleeping platform. Her three months in the winter pasture verge on an ordeal and make for a wonderfully jaunty book. It’s possible to romanticize the lifestyle, but the pragmatic Li nips those feelings in the bud. “The reality,” she writes, is “one of desolation, loneliness, and helplessness. In reality, year after year, everyone must submit to nature’s will, oscillating endlessly between south and north. . . . They are forever departing, forever saying goodbye.” It’s a harsh landscape, not a loving one. Humans suck the marrow out of boiled bones; sheep paw through dry scree for a blade of grass; dogs are thrown frozen lumps of blood to lick. Faced with similar circumstances—a dome of sky, a sweep of desert, the ear-pinging quiet—some might turn to contemplate the smallness of mankind. Li doesn’t dwell on such pishposh and tacks in the opposite direction: “Scanning the land from the peak of a dune, the human body seems no bigger than a leaf. But how can people possibly be considered small in a world like this, where signs of human activity are what leave the deepest marks?” Humans, she rightly notes, orient their entire world around them—they look for signs of each other, seek one another out across expanses so wide and open, the curve of the earth is visible. For those who seek human contact, for those whose lives depend on it, “everything races relentlessly their way. Indeed, the whole world orients itself around them. They are the masters of the wilderness.” Winter Pasture was a long time in translation, and, as has been pointed out by many before, books about China tend to date quickly. The book was first published in 2012—and though it will be most readers’ first encounter with these Kazakh herders, it may also be their last chance to read about them in action. A decade ago, Li was told regularly that the year of her visit would be the last for the herding families. They sense the outside world closing in on them, the whipcrack of official policies lashing harder than the wind. That, of course, points to the other master at play in the Chinese highlands. Xinjiang Province is known to the world as the location of China’s Uighur “reeducation” camps. Li is Han Chinese, and, while any personal feelings about her nation’s governmental policies remain unstated, passages about governmentinstituted “Grassland Restoration” projects and land expropriation 88 WLT AUTUMN 2021 0 Grossman seems uncertain where to take us next. He has Nina return to the kibbutz after many years adrift. She seems to be in a deteriorating but determined state, eager to get authentic answers to questions that have haunted her. Readers realize...

“... to grasp the native's point of view...” - A Plea for a Holistic Documentation of the Trobriand Islanders' Language, Culture and Cognition

In his famous introduction to his monograph “Argonauts of the Western Pacific” Bronislaw Malinowski (1922: 24f.) points out that a “collection of ethnographic statements, characteristic narratives, typical utterances, items of folk-lore and magical formulae has to be given as a corpus inscriptionum , as documents of native mentality”. This is one of the prerequisites to “grasp the native's point of view, his relation to life, to realize his vision of his world”. Malinowski managed to document a “ Corpus Inscriptionum Agriculturae Quriviniensis ” in his second volume of “Coral Gardens and their Magic” (1935 Vol II: 79-342). But he himself did not manage to come up with a holistic corpus inscriptionum for the Trobriand Islanders. One of the main aims I have been pursuing in my research on the Trobriand Islanders' language, culture, and cognition has been to fill this ethnolinguistic niche. In this essay, I report what I had to do to carry out this complex and ambitious project, what forms and kinds of linguistic and cultural competence I had to acquire, and how I planned my data collection during 16 long- and short-term field trips to the Trobriand Islands between 1982 and 2012. The paper ends with a critical assessment of my Trobriand endeavor.

C-reactive protein in traditional melanesians on Kitava

BackgroundPopulation-based levels of the chronic low-grade systemic inflammation biomarker, C-reactive protein (CRP), vary widely among traditional populations, despite their apparent absence of chronic conditions associated with chronic low-grade systemic inflammation, such as type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. We have previously reported an apparent absence of aforementioned conditions amongst the traditional Melanesian horticulturalists of Kitava, Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea. Our objective in this study was to clarify associations between chronic low-grade systemic inflammation and chronic cardiometabolic conditions by measuring CRP in a Kitava population sample. For comparison purposes, CRP was also measured in Swedish controls matched for age and gender.MethodsFasting levels of serum CRP were measured cross-sectionally in ≥ 40-year-old Kitavans (N = 79) and Swedish controls (N = 83).ResultsCRP was lower for Kitavans compared to Swedish controls (Mdn 0.5 mg/L range 0.1—48 mg/L and Mdn 1.1 mg/L range 0.1—33 mg/L, respectively, r = .18 p = .02). Among Kitavans, there were small negative associations between lnCRP for CRP values < 10 and total, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and non-high-density lipoprotein (non-HDL) cholesterol. Among Swedish controls, associations of lnCRP for CRP values < 10 were medium positive with weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference and waist-hip ratio and low positive with triglyceride, total cholesterol-HDL cholesterol ratio, triglyceride-HDL cholesterol ratio and serum insulin.ConclusionsChronic low-grade systemic inflammation, measured as CRP, was lower among Kitavans compared to Swedish controls, indicating a lower and average cardiovascular risk, respectively, for these populations.

Racial burdens, translations, and chance

Racial burdens, translations, and chance

Malinowski as ancestor

Jarillo et al. present evidence showing that Trobrianders today do not espouse rebirth, contrary to Trobriand views as described by Malinowski. Closer attention to Malinowski, however, shows that J...

Where are our ancestors? Rethinking Trobriand cosmology

Reincarnation has been a fundamental tenet of anthropologists’ representations of Trobriand cosmology since Bronislaw Malinowski published “Baloma; The spirits of the dead in the Trobriand Islands”...