Category Archives: Papua New Guinea

Oct. 13-16 I added about 50 words a day to my dictionary. That puts my major entries at over 1000. (I tend to have rather more minor/subentries than I will in the final product–all the parts & life cycle of a coconut under coconut etc.). People have been very cooperative. I’m going to have to collect some tapes before boredom sets in again.

Diseases seem to be partly seasonal here. August was fever time; people have depleted my cold tablet supply now and a lot of people seem to be plagued with carbuncles though they may be off and on the year throughout. The only thing that can be done for them is lancing to drain off the pus. Some get to be several inches in diameter and so painful that walking is difficult if they are on the leg (as they frequently are).

I’ve gained a bit more insight into the possible causes of the kaunsil‘s election. Not only does he have well-placed & educated children and a good (Yabim) education himself but he has an extensive network of relatives thruout the village and controls with his wife very large land holdings (from a coconut plantation all the way to the waterfall; all the mtnside his garden is on–about a hundred meter wide swath all the way up (& over?) the ridge; another garden just across the river and one off this end of the village). Phillip, his relative, was elected first, but relieved shortly & his opponent in the last election was S. (Daniel), his cross-cousin.

Today had every prospect of being a good workday (though it’s Sunday–or maybe since it is Sunday & everyone is around): one guy volunteered to give me vocabulary, the kaunsil promised a tape. Then last nite the kaunsil‘s oldest sister came by and reported an illness that wasn’t apparent but which blocks her wind passages so she can hardly breathe at times [asthma?]. Then this morning she had a bad attack of it and the whole village is waiting to see whether she’ll pull thru or not.

Later in the day, people dispersed, I got to elicit some vocabulary and hear a good deal of conversation (half was in Tok P. because some ausländer Sepiks were involved) and, in the evening, the kaunsil gave me my first text–a really perfect specimen. It is about sago palm food [starch] producing and begins with the different kinds of sago palms–which are distinguished only by their thorns, or lack of them–then, separated by a heading, continues with the whole process, from tree-cutting to division of the food [starch]. It is vocabulary rich, discourse structure rich, clear, slow, intonation contours mostly unambiguous and thus well punctuated–which, in a language with more than one inflected verb to a [simple] sentence [or clause], is very important for defining [complete] sentences. I now have my hands full transcribing but the tape is so good that I’ll be able to transcribe easily words I’m unfamiliar with. (It only goes from 1-70 on the cassette.)

Well, I’m glad I stuck around for the Lae Show. It was mostly like any big state fair with games of chance and exhibits of various groups. But it only had one or two mechanical rides and no strip shows. And, on Sunday, it had a huge singsing performance in the middle of the big arena with about 2 dozen groups of various sizes performing simultaneously. I can see how the ‘throb of the jungle drums’ could strike terror into the hearts of even the likes of Jungle Jim. In the show it all seemed somewhat more pedestrian but still very impressive. When the performance for the crowd and judges was over, the singsingers continued in a huge empty field outside of the showgrounds. They were much more accessible to photographers there but also capable of demanding payment for photos taken. I shot up two rolls (2 x 20 exp) before they finished (in someone else’s camera so I don’t know how they’ll come out but I didn’t want to risk mine not coming out again).

After a quick tour around the show Saturday I set out for the boat dock where the [M.V.] Sago comes in to help the guy that looks after my mail drink up a case of beer I had deposited with him. I was late and he and some other wantoks had already started. He scolded me, which I was glad he felt free to do, bought another case, and we all set ourselves to the task at hand on good terms, especially after J. came by and joined us for longer than he planned.

In many ways my return to the village after nearly two months away paralleled my original trip. I got to the dock at about 9:30 only to find out the boat wouldn’t leave before about 1:00. When it finally took off about 3:30 it was crowded like all the other boats after the Lae Show weekend. It was dark by the time we got to Salamaua, pitch dark by the time we made our first stop at Lababia. It looked like rain ahead for a while but then the stars appeared and the moon rose out of the sea like a huge egg yolk and made the rest of the trip more visible. After a stop at Kuwi we got to Siboma in the middle of the nite–after the cocks had crowed the first time.

The big difference was that I was much more at ease with the people on the boat or in the village and they with me and I could speak the language. And I didn’t have to take a wicked piss for the last 3 hours of the trip like the first time I came when I was unsure about whether I could just hang it over the side & do my business or not. [The men could just stand at the back of the boat facing into the dark.]

My reception in the village was easier too. When I got up I made the rounds visiting–at least at my end of the village–and found out all were waiting for the kiap (government officer) to come hear their complaint against two Paiawas who beat up a Numbami man. When the kiap finally got here he came on a bit too strong trying the time honored tradition here of shouting orders at loudmouths and talking before listening. Intimidation used to work here and still does many places but not here in Siboma now. I sat on the sidelines and listened to the various stories & arguments. The kiap finally changed his tactics and said he would take depositions and arrange a court case. It is a coup for the kaunsol that the thing is going to court rather than being resolved (or just aggravated really) by a Numbami-Paiawa brawl which a lot of men in the village seemed to want. The kiap‘s initial approach really antagonized a lot of men who were ready to go at him and then take on the Paiawas. The arguments & tactics of the older men though showed a great deal of sophistication in the handling of gov’t officials who see the world thru quite different eyes, whether or not they are blue. Their arguments appealed, for instance, to gov’t and church law and they either shouted down or quietly allowed the kiap to hear the disgrunts of the more impassioned men whenever either suited the point they were making. A lot of the antagonism is not really at the Paiawa but at the timber company whose camp the beating occurred in and whose rotten deal for Siboma timber is constantly ready to be added to the flame of any other grievance at all connected to the timber co.

After the kiap left the young men of the village invited me to join them for a singsing practice. They’re going to perform at the upcoming church meeting of the whole district near Salamaua. I got a good glimpse at what goes into their bilas (adornment, make-up, decoration) and they helped me bilas as well. Then we snuck around to the other side of the village (we got ready near the washing hole) and made our entrance after heralding it with drum beats. We danced the same sequence of movements (to different drumbeats sometimes and different lyrics/chants) for probably 2 hours so by the end I had it down pretty well. I may have gotten myself into performing with them (before a large crowd I’m afraid). I’m oddly unconcerned about whether I join them or not. They think it would be quite a spectacle and, though flattery may enter into it, I am assured that I perform quite adequately. We performed until food was brought for us (though we weren’t sure it was coming for a while). I worked up quite an appetite and an even greater thirst.

I couldn’t have asked for a better first day back in the village. There was even a warm beer or two to be had that evening.

Dear S,

By the grace of good saint Quinine the Deaf, I have found myself in a village of about 150 people, 4 of whom are deaf. Since your morbid interest in the subject is well known I thought you might be interested. I am also wondering if there might be any questions I could answer or look into on the subject while I’m here.

(There is also a full-fledged crazy who wanders around in a blanket exposing himself from time to time and calmly enduring abuse when he comes where he is not wanted. And then of course there’s that odd foreigner so addicted to books & paper who actually jumps at the chance to do physical labor in between his alchemizing. In a community of only 25 houses the ratio of oddities to normal people is almost as high as that of L.A.)

All of the deaf are men between the ages of about 30 and 45. One, my roommate, is profoundly deaf and his father too was apparently deaf. The two of them used to communicate in sign I hear tell. Now though, the son of my hosts is the only one fluent in his home sign and the only one who communicates with him extensively with much effectiveness. I am probably the second most familiar with his signs and I am so often in the the dark that, if it wasn’t my job to spend a good deal of my time listening to unintelligible conversation like a dog under the table hoping a juicy scrap will be thrown my way, then I would probably give up in despair like most of the village and pay him little heed.

The other three deaf men more recently lost their hearing and people still shout at them from time to time. There is no sense of community among the deaf people and no attempt to develop a home sign of their own. The three more recently deaf can still speak (in a monotone and often too softly) so the ones that suffer the most frustration are the ones who want to communicate with them, particularly the spouse of one of them. Since clearing forest, building canoes and houses and catching fish are not tasks requiring good hearing, except when done cooperatively, all of their lives are less unproductive than increasingly solitary.

Though those three are fairly well acculturated and share pretty much the same reality as the other people in the village (except for one who won’t forsake Pidgin when communicating with me–usually to trade betel nut for tobacco. He irritated me till I found out the reason whereupon my knee jerked and my heart bled but he still irritates me.), but I have recently come to realize that one of the troubles I have in following the really deaf guy is that he makes reference to worlds I do not expect. It hit me rather forcefully one day when he was telling war stories (many probably came from his father or perhaps from people who have signed to him since they match what others tell me about the mountains of food & tobacco of the American troops, etc.; others he got from a trip to the Lae Military Barracks where his manucommunicant worked). He, in the midst of describing weapons of various sorts, described one sort of pliers-like contraption which he indicated was used to snip off people’s noses, ears, and pinch out their eyes (sorry, gentle reader, if thy sensibilities are offended). I looked rather puzzled and asked who. He described their skin color as being, after searching around for some time to find an example of the color, purple! Combining that with another story of a flying submarine I can only conclude that he is a bit too credulous of the comics he looks at (he’s an avid reader but absolutely illiterate) or of whatever movies he’s seen.

I’ve also just come to realize that he has a reputation (well deserved) for thieving. He has been pilfering my stuff shamelessly.

NEW GUINEA COASTAL VILLAGE HOME SIGNS

RAIN – arms raised pointing back over shoulder, fingers spread and hands fall repeatedly in unison facing back as if rain falling on shoulders (never falls on face).

WIND – hands rotate in front of face clockwise blowing air toward face & chest.

EAT – fingers in letter O touch lips as teeth champ several times.

BISKITS (flat, unleavened, hard ship biskits) – B-hand pulled away from mouth as teeth clamp together.

PEPPER PLANT (eaten with betel nut) – single finger (index) pulled away from mouth or dipped into palm of left hand as if dipping into lime powder (culturally transparent) (the dipping into ‘lime’ and putting finger toward mouth also indicates lime itself).

BEATING SAGO – both hands held together as if holding a golfclub (actually a sago beater) and pounded up & down (culturally transparent)

SLEEP, NIGHT, 24 hr period – head inclines toward palm of hand which acts as pillow. Three nites would be SLEEP – 1 – SLEEP – 2 – SLEEP 3

DAY, SUN, TIME OF DAY – pointing at place sun comes up, the hand follows the arc of the sun until the appropriate location is reached. As far as I know, orientation is always to actual sunrise & sunset, not to conventionalized location in relation to body.

STUDENT – writing with index finger on open palm of left hand. (‘School’ in the local language is, roughly translated, ‘house paper’.)

In addition, this congenitally deaf fellow can pronounce two words which, significantly I suspect, both involve labials.

mou ‘none, no’ [mou] (I’m not sure how much actual nasalization)

bamo ‘a lot’ [ba-a] (the [a] ends up creaky voiced and long; it is almost always rather long when hearers say it)

Many signs are commonly used or known, especially those pertaining to work, like line-fishing, beating sago palm and betel nut paraphernalia. But I have never seen any Siboma use an action like his INTENSIFIER. On the other hand his numbers match the Siboma numerical metaphors.

5 = nimateula (‘half hand’) = ENUMERATION + HAND

10 = nimabesua (‘both hands’) = ENUMERATION + BOTH-HANDS-TOGETHER

20 = tamota te (‘one man’) = ENUMERATION + HANDS-AND-FEET-TOGETHER

Let me know if there are any particular signs you are interested in.

Em tasol,

P.S. MORE NEW GUINEA VILLAGE HOME SIGNS

KAUNSIL – indicates badge on chest (which kaunsil never wears)

DEAD – palms facing front, arms slitely bent at sides, bead thrown back turned to one side, eyes closed

WHITES – salute

SAILOR – round hat on head indicated

JPNSE – big head/helmet

CHINESE – flatnose

REEF, ISLAND – circle drawn horizontally at chest level from above

HOUSE – palms parallel or straight w/ fingers making roof

OLD – beard

AFRAID – draws arms into chest and withdraws to one side

REFERENTS-PEOPLE – indicated by house [location] or outstanding physical trait

INTENSIFIER – turns face to one side, drawing shoulder up to chin, and closing eyes. Maintained for about 1 sec or more.

PUNISHMENT, INCARCERATION – one wrist over the other in front of chest as if hands tied, both wrists facing down, hands in fists

CHURCH – hands clasped, fingers interlaced, in front of neck

POLICE – arms come up to chest as if marching

LINE FISHING – arms bent at elbow before chest, raised alternately as when pulling in a handline

M.V. SAGO (the village diesel-powered fishing boat) – hands rotate back & forth an imaginary steering wheel

(M.V. SAGO, LINE FISHING & POLICE are a near-minimal trio: all have alternate arm movement but different end points and orientation)

Yesterday, Friday the 13th, was no worse than the rest of the days of August, which is month of 31 Fridays the 13th by reckoning of the people along this coast. Em taim nogut: planti sik i kamap, solwara i sulukim nambis, pik i kaikai man, pis i siutim man, bikpela ren i kam wasim bris, kano i go lus, kainkain samting nogut [‘It’s a bad time: many illnesses arise, the sea erodes the beach, a pig bites a man, a fish stings a man, a big rain washes out a bridge, a canoe drifts loose, every kind of bad thing’]. And it’s all true. A fever is going around and has found me among its many victims. It really laid me low and I still haven’t fully recovered. I would advise anyone else doing fieldwork along the coast south of Lae to spend August in Lae or Ukarumpa or something. The SILers working on Kaiwa told me in July they planned to stay in Ukarumpa until September to avoid these hazards.

Last nite the [M.V.] Suena Dubu, a ship belonging to the people around Morobe Patrol Post down the coast a ways, came in and offered goods for sale, a floating store. Seems a German business advisor had his girlfriend (who spoke little English) come to visit and conceived of this business venture as an excuse for getting her (& him) around to see the real New Guinea. I bought tobacco & crackers [ship biscuits] which I was running short of and exchanged a few words with the German man, in about half Tok Pisin, half Tok Inglis, and generally milled around with the other villagers when the two & a few of their (PNGean) crew came ashore to buy a few things. That nite I put on Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos 4, 5, & 6 and let it drift out over the water for them but I’m not sure it was loud enough. They slept aboard the boat, did some business in the morning and chugged out a few hours ago.

The line between me and everyone else in the village expands to include me in the presence of outsiders.

This morning there was a demonstration (one sign) by the fishermen in the village demanding 20 toea/lb for their fish (a 100% raise over the present 10t/lb). They enjoyed themselves.

After most of the week hibernating working on my dictionary, I was getting sore sitting down so much and quite irritated at being interrupted. Part of the irritation was from the fact that I had nothing to share with people verbally. But by Thursday I had pretty much caught up and had about had it so when a younger guy was getting people to beat sago I volunteered. It was the tree of the kolapa (young, i.e., unmarried, man) and mostly it was kolapas who did the work though three ewekapas (young women) helped with the carrying of the pulp to the washers. I raised my blisters again just when my last crop was peeling off and managed to break all but one so my hands are usable if a bit sore today.

Today I accompanied the kaunsil’s family to the garden (the second time I’ve been there). It was just what I needed to stretch my legs, change my scenery and snatch some real peace & quiet. We walked all the way up and over the top of the ridge which I estimate to be about 200 meters above sea level and follows a slope of about 50-60 degrees. The kaunsil is cutting a new canoe just over the top of the ridge. Getting it down to the water is going to be real fun. Getting ourselves down in the rain today was treacherous enough.

I finished Hyman’s phonology text except for the chapter on generative formalisms. I’m well pleased to have brot it with me. But I got hungry for fiction so I dug out an abridged Don Quixote (432 pp.) and have been enjoying it immensely.

The kaunsil’s prize hunting dog that is well behaved and can shake hands (having been raised by a European) as well as leap over wild pigs contracted mange that threatened to destroy his beautiful yellowish-brown coat. I went to town and got some medicine but no one has gotten around to putting it on and the hair continues to drop off, scabs rise and even the hair remaining has lost its luster. And sympathy has begun to turn to disgust–so strange are human emotions. Saving a dog’s skins is just not high on the list of priorities, most of which are subsistence level–repairing the old canoes that were on the verge of falling to pieces, finishing the veranda on my house, cutting the new canoe, gathering food from the garden and preparing it.

Several people have mentioned I’m getting fat! It shouldn’t be surprising but for my usual inability to do so. It does seem like I’ve put on a pound or two. I bet if I shaved people would think I was emaciated.

The Head Heeb does a wrap-up on the Sandline scandal in Papua New Guinea.

The last echoes of the Sandline crisis were heard today in a Papua New Guinea courtroom with the acquittal of Jerry Singirok on charges of sedition….

The government may also have thought it was time to bring the matter to a close; despite having almost seven years to prepare their case, they only presented one witness.

I couldn’t get much done yesterday because of the steady flow of lousy informants to my ‘office’. But I was given plenty of betel nut and chewed till my teeth are sore. And in the evening I did a good bit of talking in Binga Numbami that goes to show that ‘dry spells’ are often nothing but assimilation and absorption periods. I was feeling particularly dry after my weekend in Lae (actually midweek).

The Sande today started out with Yabem liturgy, including two German > Yabem hymns; Tok Pisin scripture and sermon; followed by a translation in Binga N. spoken mostly facing the women. The men were scattered all about in a widely strewn circle, the women bunched all up next to and under a house. Gilami, the speaker, feels the message is important enough to be translated on most occasions and he is a good talker though a little inclined to righteousness (ah, a kindred soul).