The Trobriand Islands (today officially known as the Kiriwina Islands ) are a 170 mi² archipelago of coral atolls off the eastern coast of New Guinea. They are situated in Milne Bay Province in Papua New Guinea. Most of the population of 12,000 indigenous inhabitants live on the main island of Kiriwina, which is also the location of the government station, Losuia. Other major islands in the group are Kaileuna, Vakuta and Kitava. The group is considered to be an important tropical rainforest ecoregion in need of conservation.
People
The people of the area are mostly subsistence horticulturalists who live in traditional settlements. The social structure is based on matrilineal clans who control land and resources. People participate in the regional circuit of exchange of shells called kula , sailing to visit trade partners on seagoing canoes. In the late twentieth century, anti-colonial and cultural autonomy movements gained followers from the Trobriand societies. When inter-group warfare was forbidden by colonial rulers, the islanders developed a unique, aggressive form of cricket.
Although an understanding of reproduction and modern medicine is widespread in Trobriand Society, their traditional beliefs have been remarkably resilient, The real cause of pregnancy is always a baloma, who is inserted into or enters the body of a woman, and without whose existence a woman could not become pregnant; all babies are made or come into existence (ibubulisi) in Tuma. These tenets form the main stratum of what can be termed popular or universal belief. If you question any man, woman, or even an intelligent child, you will obtain from him or her this information. In the past, many held this traditional belief because the yam, a major food of the island, included chemicals (phytoestrogens and plant sterols) whose effects are contraceptive, so the practical link between sex and pregnancy was not very evident.
"The Trobrianders... whose culture traces family lineage through mothers rather than fathers." This is known as a matrilineal kinship organization. "The Trobrianders eat alone, retiring to their own hearths with their portions, turning their backs on one another and eating rapidly for fear of being observed." (Both quotes from an excerpt from Jenefer Shute's 1992 novel Life-Size in the book, Open Questions.)
Particularly interesting and unique to the Trobriand Islands are the linguistic aspect of the indigenous language, Kilivila. Drawing upon earlier work by Bronislaw Malinowski, Dorothy D. Lee's scholarly writings refer to "non-lineal codifications of reality." In such a linguistic system, the concept of linear progress of time, geometric shapes, and even conventional methods of description are lost altogether or altered. In her example of a specific indigenous yam, Lee explains that when the yam moves from a state of sprouting to ripeness to over-ripeness, the name for each object in a specific state changes entirely. This is because the description of the object at different states of development are perceived as wholly different objects. Ripeness is considered a "defining ingredient" and thus once it becomes over-ripe, it is a new object altogether. The same perception pertains to time and geometric shapes.
History
The first European visitor to the islands was the French ship Espérance in 1793. The islands were named by navigator Bruni d'Entrecasteaux after his first lieutenant, Denis de Trobriand. In the early 20th century, as the British colonial regime extended its influence and control throughout the Territory of Papua, the southern portion of New Guinea, Losuia station was established and remained an important center for colonial police officers, traders and missionaries. As World War I began, Bronislaw Malinowski came to Papua and ultimately to the Trobriands to begin an in-depth immersive study of a non-western culture. His descriptions of the kula exchange system, gardening, magic and sexual practices, all classics of modern anthropological writing, prompted many foreign researchers to visit the societies of the island group and study other aspects of their cultures. The psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich drew on Malinowski's studies of the islands in writing his The Invasion of Compulsory Sex Morality and consequently in developing his theory of sex economy in his 1936 work Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf .
In 1943, troops landed on the islands as a part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied advance to Rabaul. In the 1970s, some indigenous peoples formed anti-colonial associations and political movements.
References
Books by Malinowski about the Trobriands
- Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922)
- The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia (1929).
- Coral Gardens and their Magic (1935).
Other books about the Trobriands
- The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea (1988) by Annette B. Weiner
- The Happy Isles Of Oceania (1992) by Paul Theroux
Trobriand Islands in popular culture
- The Trobriand Islands were mentioned in an episode of Married...With Children when Bud Bundy was studying them for an Anthropology final.
- The Trobriand Islands were features in an episode of Worlds Apart on National Geographic Channel
References
- ^ Isabella Tree, "Culture Shock: In the Trobriand Islands the annual yam festival is more than just ordinary.", TravelIntelligence.com
External links
- Trobriand Islands Online
- Sorcery and Seduction The Art of Influence in the Trobriands — A travel story about the Trobriands by Roderick Eime
- Lineal and Non-Lineal Codifications of Reality by Dorothy Lee
- Trobriand Islands rain forests (World Wildlife Fund)
- Malinowski fieldwork photographs of the Trobriand Islands (1915–18) held at London School of Economics Archives
Coordinates: 8°40′S 150°55′E / 8.667°S 150.917°E / -8.667;
Trobriand Islands - Papua New Guinea - Travel Photos by Galen R ...
Some of the Pacific Islands. Bismark Archipelago and the Trobriand Islands of Papua New Guinea . Baining's tribal fire dance . Japanese airplane remnant of war near RABAUL
Trobriand Islands Revisited
The Trobriand Islands with a culture of self-reliance and magic has changed little over generations. Not even the missionaries have been able to alter the view of ...
Trobriand Islands - definition of Trobriand Islands by the Free Online ...
Tro·bri·and Islands (tr br-nd, -änd) An island group of Papua New Guinea in the Solomon Sea off eastern New Guinea. The islands were occupied by Allied forces in June 1943.
Trobriand Islands
Abenaki, Acadians, Achumawi, African Americans, Ahtna, Alabama, Aleut, Algonkin, American Isolates, Amish, etc…
Trobriand Islands
The Trobriand Islands are an archipelago of several low-lying coral islands situated to the northeast of New Guinea. They are part of Melanesia, a vast area to the ...
Trobriand Islands - Hutchinson encyclopedia article about Trobriand ...
Trobriand Islands. Group of coral islands in the Solomon Sea, forming part of the province of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea; chief town Losuia; area 440 sq km/170 sq mi.
Trobriand Islands Mythology
Qat has many associations with the sea and like another seafaring hero from the Trobriands he built a great canoe inland far from the sea. The Trobriander's canoe flew but Qat's ...
Trobriand Islands - Definition of Trobriand Islands at YourDictionary ...
group of small islands off SE New Guinea: part of Papua New Guinea: c. 170 sq mi (440 sq km)
Trobriand Islands definition of Trobriand Islands in the Free Online ...
Trobriand Islands (trō`brēănd', trō'brēănd`), small volcanic island group off SE New Guinea, part of Papua New Guinea. Kiriwana is the largest of the group's 22 islands.
Trobriand Islands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Trobriand Islands (today officially known as the Kiriwina Islands) are a 170 mi² archipelago of coral atolls off the eastern coast of New Guinea.