II

On that occasion in Sinaketa, I met him again after about two years interval since the time when I lived as his neighbour in Omarakana for some eight months, my tent pitched side by side with his lisiga (chief’s man’s abode). I found him changed and aged, his tall figure more bent, his large face, with its expression half of benevolence and half of cunning, wrinkled and clouded over. He had some grievances to tell about the offhand treatment which had been given to him in Sinaketa, where he had received no necklaces at all, although a few days before the Sinaketans had carried from Kiriwina over 150 pairs of armshells. Indeed, the relative change of position between the chiefs of Sinaketa and himself is a permanent sore point with the old chief. All coastal natives, and especially the headman of Sinaketa, have become very rich owing to the introduced industry of pearling, where their services are paid for by the white men in tobacco, betel-nut, and vaygu’a. But To’uluwa, ruined through white man’s influence, receives nothing from pearling, and compared to his Sinaketan inferiors, is a pauper. So after a day or two in Sinaketa, highly displeased, and vowing never to return again, he went back to Omarakana, his residence, and thither we shall follow him.

For Omarakana is still the centre of the Trobriand inland Kula, and, in certain respects, still one of the most important places on the ring. It is probably the only locality where the Kula is or ever was to some extent concentrated in the hands of one man, and it is also the capital of the important district of Kiriwina, which dominates all the inland Kula of the Northern Trobriands, and links up the island of Kitava with the western islands of Kuyleula and Kuyawa. It is also an important link between Kitava and Sinaketa, though between these two last mentioned places there are some minor means of communication, as we shall presently see.

Previously, in Chapter III, in the definition of the fundamentals of the Kula, we saw that the population of the Ring can be divided into what we called Kula communities. These divisions, as we remember, were distinguished by the fact that each one makes overseas expeditions of its own. For example, the Sinaketans, as we saw, make their trips to Dobu in a body, and although the Vakutans may go with them at the same time, the two fleets sail and act as independent units. Again, the whole district of Kiriwina sails to the East, to Kitava, as one fleet. But no Sinaketan canoe could ever form part of it. Another distinguishing characteristic of a Kula community is that the furthest limits of partnership are the same for all its members. Thus for instance, a man from any village in Kiriwina, provided he is in the Kula, may have a partner anywhere up to the furthest limits of the Sinaketa district in the South, and in any of the villages of the island of Kitava to the East. But beyond that, no Kiriwinian, not even To’uluwa himself, can enter into Kula partnership. There are again certain differences between the manner of conducting transactions within a Kula community on the one hand, and between members of two communities on the other.

Kiriwina is one of such Kula communities, and Sinaketa is another. Yet the two are not divided by sea, and the style of exchange, when this is carried on between two Kula communities which lie in the same district, differs also from that of overseas Kula. Our first task here will be therefore to mark out clearly the lines of distinction between:

1. The transactions of Kula carried on overseas, from one district to another.

2. Kula between two distinct but contiguous ‘Kula communities.’

3. Transactions within a ‘Kula community.’

The facts belonging to the first heading have been described at length, and it will be enough to point out in what the second type differs from the first. Obviously, when two districts on the same island, such as Kiriwina and Sinaketa, make the exchange there is no overseas sailing, no preparation of canoes, no launching, no kabigidoya. Sometimes big joint expeditions are made by the one community to the other and a great haul of vaygu’a is carried home. As an example of that, we may mention the visit made by the Sinaketans to Kiriwina in the last days of March, 1918, when a great number of mwali were brought, in readiness for the Dobuan uvalaku visit. When such an important visit is made from one Trobriand district to another, some of the Kula magic will be performed, but obviously not all, for there is no lilava bundle to be medicated, since no trade is carried; no dangerous cannibals have to be tamed by the ka’ubana’i rite, for the hosts are, and always have been, friendly neighbours. But some of the beauty magic, and the enticing formula over betel-nut would be recited to obtain as many valuables as possible. There is nothing corresponding to uvalaku in such big visits between neighbouring districts, though I think that they would be held only in connection with some uvalaku visit from another part of the ring to one of the two districts, as was the case in the example quoted, that is the Sinaketan visit to Kiriwina (Chapter XVI). Of course there is no associated trade on such expeditions, for there is very little to exchange between Sinaketa and Kiriwina, and what there is, is done independently, in a regular manner all the year round. Partnership between people of such two Kula communities is very much the same as within one of them. It obtains between people speaking the same language, having the same customs and institutions, many of whom are united by bonds of actual kinship or relationship-in-law. For, as has been mentioned already, marriages between Sinaketa and Kiriwina take place frequently, especially between natives of high rank. The rule is, in such cases, that a man of Sinaketa marries a woman of Kiriwina.

Plate LX  

Armshells Brought from Kitava.

The personal share of To’uluwa from the haul of armshells brought to Omarakana in October in October, 1915. (See Div. III.)

Plate LXI  

Bringing in a Soulava.

The party, the second man blowing the conch shell and the leader carrying the necklace on a stick, approach the chief’s house. (See Div. III.)

Plate LXII  

Offering the Soulava.

The necklace is thrust on its stick into the chief’s house. Both this plate and the foregoing one represent an act of purely domestic Kula, one of the sons of To’uluwa offering his father a necklace. Hence the scanty attendance of the general public.