Argonauts of the Western Pacific An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea

In treating of the various customs and practices of the Kula, I had at every step to enter into the description of magical rites and into the analysis of spells. This had to be...

At daybreak the party leave the Amphletts. This is the stage when the parting gifts, the talo'i are given. The clay pots, the several kinds of produce of the islands and of the...

Leaving the bronzed rocks and the dark jungle of the Amphletts for the present--for we shall have to revisit them in the course of our study, and then shall learn more about the...

In this chapter an account will be given of the ideas and beliefs associated with shipwreck, and of the various precautions which the natives take to insure their own safety. We...

The canoe, painted and decorated, stands now ready to be launched, a source of pride to the owners and to the makers, and an object of admiration to the other beholders. A new s...

The building of the sea-going canoe (masawa) is inextricably bound up with the general proceedings of the Kula. As we have said before, in all villages where Kula is practised t...

Having thus described the scene, and the actors, let us now proceed to the performance. The Kula is a form of exchange, of extensive, inter-tribal character; it is carried on by...

such as we imagined in that chapter, would reveal to an open-eyed Ethnographer this economic truth. He would see visiting parties--women carrying big food baskets on their head,...

The tribes who live within the sphere of the Kula system of trading belong, one and all--with the exception perhaps, of the Rossel Island natives, of whom we know next to nothin...

We have been following the various routes and ramifications of the Kula, entering minutely and meticulously into its rules and customs., its beliefs and practices, and the mytho...

A canoe is an item of material culture, and as such it can be described, photographed and even bodily transported into a museum. But--and this is a truth too often overlooked--t...

In the twelve preceding chapters, we have followed an expedition from Sinaketa to Dobu. But branching off at almost every step from its straight track, we studied the various as...

The aim of this Chapter is to show by a linguistic analysis of two magical texts, and by a general survey of a greater number, what sort of words are believed to exercise magica...

In the last chapter, we spoke about the institution of gwara (mortuary taboo) and of the threatening reception accorded to the visiting party, at the time when it is laid upon t...

Our party, sailing from the North, reach first the main island of Gumasila, a tall, steep mountain with arched lines and great cliffs, suggesting vaguely some huge Gothic monume...

When the Sinaketan fleet passes the two mythical rocks of Atu'a'ine and Aturamo'a, the final goal of the expedition has been already reached. For before them, there stretch in a...

'I impart speed magically.' The prefix na- is that of the definite tense. The formative pu- I was unable to translate, while the root woye means literally 'to beat' and in a som...

In this chapter the ring of the Kula has to be closed by a description of its remaining portions. It will also be found indispensable to speak about its offshoots, that is, the...

After the somewhat long digression on magic, we can now return once more to the description of the Kula. So far, we have been treating only one incident in it, the overseas expe...

the origin of humanity, this clan emerges first from underground and in some it emerges second in time, but as the clan of highest rank, though in this it has to yield afterward...

We have brought the Kula narrative to the point where all the preparations have been made, the canoe is ready, its ceremonial launching and presentation have taken place, and th...

The return journey of the Sinaketan fleet is made by following exactly the same route as the one by which they came to Dobu. In each inhabited island, in every village, where a...

Now at last the Kula expedition is properly set going. The canoes are started on a long stage, before them the sea-arm of Pilolu, stretching between the Trobriands and the d'Ent...

sailing, we can visualise concretely the craft with all its inmates, as it sails on the Pilolu; the toliwaga usually sits near the mast in the compartment called kayguya'u. With...

both with reference to their economic position and to their character. Monopolists they are in two respects, namely as manufacturers of the wonderful clay pots which form the on...

performed in Kiriwina. On arrival at the beach in Kitava, all the rites of beauty magic, as well as the magic over the conch shell are recited in a manner identical to that in S...

followed after a lapse of time by a counter-gift. Now on a uvalaku the natives would receive in Dobu a certain amount of gifts, which, within a year or so, would be returned to...

On the actual expeditions, much of the ceremonial and all the rules of the Kula gifts, as well as of the pari and talo'i, the initial and farewell presents, are the same as in t...

[59] This advantage was probably in olden days a mutual one. Nowadays, when the fishermen can earn about ten or twenty times more by diving for pearls than by performing their s...

After so many preparations and preliminaries, we might expect that, once embarked, the natives would make straight for the high mountains, which beckon them alluringly from the...

The subject of which this book treats and the material at our disposal are nearly exhausted. In describing the Southern branch of the Kula (between Sinaketa and Dobu) I entered...