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Robert W. Williamson - The Mafulu

R >> Robert W. Williamson >> The Mafulu




Plate 53 gives illustrations of three of these bags--Fig. 1 being a
woman's ornamented bag No. 3, and Fig. 2 being a man's ornamented bag
No. 4; but this last-mentioned bag is rather a large one of its type,
the usual difference in size between Nos. 3 and 4 being greater than
the two examples figured would suggest. The patterns of both these
bags, and especially of the larger one, are more regular than is
usually the case. The bag shown in Fig. 3 will be dealt with hereafter
under the heading of netting.

As regards women, the carrying of bags, either full or empty, hanging
over their backs is so common that one might almost regard the bag
as an additional article of dress. I may say here in advance of
my observations on netting that the distinctive features of Mafulu
bags, as compared with those made in Mekeo and on the coast, are the
special and peculiar form of netting which is commonly adopted for
some of them and the curious lines of colouring with which they are
often ornamented.

Hammocks are commonly used in the houses and _emone_ for sleeping. [52]
These also are made of network and will be referred to later. The
distinctive feature of network mentioned in relation to bags applies
to these also, but not that of colouring.

Pottery is not made or used in Mafulu.

I may perhaps refer here to what I imagine to be an ancient stone
mortar, which I found at Mafulu, and which I have endeavoured to show
in Fig. 2. A portion of the upper part of the original was broken away,
and I regret that I did not try to sketch it just as it was, instead
of adopting the easier course of following what had been the original
lines. I am also sorry that its great weight made it impossible for me
to bring it down with me to the coast, [53] and that by an oversight
I did not secure a photograph of it. The vessel was well and evenly
shaped. It had perfectly smooth surfaces, without any trace of cutting
or chipping, and must have been made by grinding. It was devoid of any
trace of decoration. Its top external diameter was about 12 inches,
its height, when standing upright on its base, was about 8 inches,
and the thickness of the bowl at the lip about 1 inch. I was told
that similar things are from time to time found in the district,
generally on the ridges, far away from water. A Mafulu chief said
that the Mafulu name for these things is _idagafe._ The natives have
no knowledge of their origin or past use, the only explanation of the
latter which was suggested being that they were used as looking-glasses
by looking into the scummy surface of the water inside them. [54]

European things. The Mafulu people are now beginning, mainly through
the missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and also through their contact
with Mekeo and other lowland tribes, to get into touch with European
manufactures. Trade beads, knives, axes, plane irons (used by them
in place of stone blades for their adzes), matches and other things
are beginning to find their way directly and indirectly into such of
the villages as are nearest to the opportunities of procuring them
by exchange or labour.


Domestic Animals.

Dogs may occasionally, though only rarely, be seen in the villages,
but these are small black, brownish-black, or black and white dogs
with very bushy tails, and not the yellow dingo dogs which infest
the villages of Mekeo; and even these Mafulu dogs are, I was told,
not truly a Mafulu institution, having been obtained by the people,
I think, only recently from their Kuni neighbours. A tame cockatoo may
also very occasionally be seen, and even, though still more rarely,
a tame hornbill. There are no cocks and hens.

The universal domestic animal of the Mafulu, however, is the pig,
and he is so important to them that he is worthy of notice. These
pigs are "village" pigs, which, though naturally identical with "wild"
pigs--being, in fact, wild pigs which have been caught alive or their
descendants--have to be distinguished from wild pigs, and especially
so in connection with feasts and ceremonies.

Village pigs are the individual property of the householders who
possess them, there being no system of community or village ownership;
and, when required for feasts and ceremonies, each household has to
provide such pig or pigs as custom requires of it. They are bred in the
villages by their owners, and by them brought up, fed and tended, the
work of feeding and looking after them being the duty of the women. No
distinguishing ownership marks are put upon the pigs, but their owners
know their own pigs, and still more do the pigs know the people who
feed them; so that disputes as to ownership do not arise. The number
of pigs owned by these people is enormous in proportion to the size
of their villages, and I was told that a comparatively small village
will be able at a big feast to provide a number of village pigs much
in excess of what will be produced by one of the big Mekeo villages.

These village pigs often wander away into the bush, and may disappear
from sight for months; but they nevertheless still continue to
be village pigs. If, however, they are not seen or heard of for a
very long time (say six months), they are regarded as having become
wild pigs, and may be caught and appropriated as such. It is usual
with village pigs to clip or shorten their ears and tails, or even
sometimes to remove their eyes, so as to keep them from wandering
into the gardens. [55] But even a village pig thus marked as such
would be regarded as having become a wild pig if it had disappeared
for a very long time.

Village pigs (as distinguished from wild pigs) are, as will be seen
below, never eaten in their own village on ceremonial occasions,
or indeed perhaps at all, being only killed and cut up and given to
the visitors to take away and eat in their own villages.


Etiquette.

These simple people do not appear to have many customs which come
under the heading of etiquette, pure and simple.

A boy must soon, say within a few weeks, after he has received his
perineal band leave the parental home, and go to live in the _emone;_
but this rule only refers to his general life, and does not prohibit
him from ever entering his parents' house. If he receives his band
when he is very young, this rule will not begin to operate until he
is ten or twelve years old. He is in no case under any prohibition
from being in or crossing the village enclosure. A girl is allowed to
enter the _emone_, though she may not sleep there, prior to receiving
her band, but after that she must never enter it.

A young unmarried man, who has arrived at the marriageable age, must
not eat in the presence of women. He can eat in the bush, or inside
the _emone_, but he must not eat on the platform of the _emone_,
where women might see him. There appear to be no other customs
of mutual avoidance, as, for example, that between son-in-law and
mother-in-law, and with reference to other marriage relationships,
such as are found in some of the Solomon Islands, and among various
other primitive races.

Children and unimportant adults must always pass behind a chief,
not in front of him, and when a chief is speaking, everyone else,
old and young, must be silent.

Young men and girls associate and talk freely together in public
among other people, but no young man would go about alone with a girl,
unless he was misconducting himself with her, or wished to do so.

Visiting is purely friendly and social, and there is no personal
system of formal and ceremonial visiting, except as between communities
or villages.

There do not appear to be any forms of physical salutation, but there
are recognised ways in which men address one another on meeting and
parting. If A and B meet in the bush, A may say to B, "Where do you
come from?", and B will answer, "I come from----." A may then say,
"Where are you going to?", and B will reply to this. Then B may
put similar questions to A, and will be similarly answered. These
questions are not necessarily asked because the questioner is really
anxious for information, but are in the nature of a formality,--the
equivalent of our "How do you do?" The system of asking and answering
these questions, though well recognised as a social form, is not
in practice strictly adhered to. Also A, on coming to a village and
finding B there, and wishing to salute him, will call him by name,
and B will then call A by name. Then A will say, "You are here,"
and B will reply, "I am here." This form is more strictly carried
out than is the other one. Then when A leaves he will say to B,
"I am going," and B will answer, "Go." Then B will call A by his
name, and A will call B by name, and the formality is finished. If A,
being very friendly with B, comes to his village to see him, on A's
departure B, and probably B's family, will accompany A out of the
village, and will stand watching his departure until he is about to
disappear round the corner of the path; and then they will call out
his name, and he will respond by calling out B's name.

Gestures may perhaps be included under this heading, though there is
apparently but little to be said about the matter. When a question
is asked, an affirmative reply is indicated by nodding the head,
and a negative one by shaking it; and, though I asked if this was
not probably the result of association with people who had been among
white men, I was told that it was not so. A negative answer is also
often expressed by shrugging the shoulders, and a kind of grimace
with the lips. The nodding of the head to a negative question, such
as "Are you not well?" signifies assent to the negative, that is,
that he is not well, and so vice-versa with the shaking of the head.







CHAPTER V

Community, Clan, and Village Systems and Chieftainship


Communities, Clans, and Villages.

The native populations of the Mafulu area are scattered about in
small groups or clusters of villages or hamlets; and, as each cluster
of villages is for many purposes a composite and connected whole,
I propose to call such a cluster a "community." Friendships, based
on proximity and frequent intercourse and intermarriage, doubtless
arise between neighbouring communities, but otherwise there does
not appear to be any idea in the minds of the people of any general
relationship or common interest between these various communities of
the area. Each community regards the members of every other community
within the area as outsiders, just as much so as are, say, the Ambo
people to the north and the Kuni people to the west. If a community,
or group of communities together, were the subject of an attack from
either Ambo or Kuni natives, each of these being people whose language
is different--as regards the Kuni utterly different--from that of the
Mafulu, there would apparently be no thought of other Mafulu-speaking
communities, as such, coming to assist in repelling the attack. Hence
in dealing with the question of inter-village relationship, I have
to fix my mind mainly upon the community and its constituent parts.

Concerning the situation as between one community and another,
as they regard themselves as quite distinct and unrelated, the only
question which seems to arise is that of the ownership of, and rights
over, the intervening bush and other land. The boundaries between
what is regarded as the preserve of one community, within which its
members may hunt and fish, clear for garden purposes, cut timber, and
collect fruit, and that of an adjoining community are perfectly well
known. The longitudinal boundaries along the valleys are almost always
the rivers and streams, which form good boundary marks; but those
across the hills and ridges from stream to stream are, I was told,
equally defined in the minds of the natives, though no artificial
boundary marks are visible. These boundaries are mutually respected,
and trouble and fighting over boundary and trespass questions are,
I was told, practically unknown, the people in this respect differing
from those of Mekeo.

A community comprises several villages, the number of which may vary
from, say, two to eight. But the relationship between all the villages
is not identical. There is a clan system, and there is generally more
than one clan in a community. Often there are three or more of such
clans. Each clan, however, has its own villages, or sometimes one
village only, within the community, and two clans are never found
represented in any one village, [56] or any one clan spread over two
or more communities.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of a typical Mafulu community,
the circles representing villages of one clan, the squares those of
another clan, and the triangle being the sole village of a third clan.

I have said that the entire community is for many purposes a composite
whole. In many matters they act together as a community. This is
especially so as regards the big feast, which I shall describe
hereafter. It is so also to a large extent in some other ceremonies
and in the organisation of hunting and fishing parties and sometimes
in fighting. And the community as a whole has its boundaries, within
which are the general community rights of hunting, fishing, etc.,
as above stated.

But the relationship between a group of villages of any one clan
within the community is of a much closer and more intimate character
than is that of the community as a whole. These villages of one
clan have a common _amidi_ or chief, a common _emone_ or clubhouse,
and a practice of mutual support and help in fighting for redress
of injury to one or more of the individual members; and there is a
special social relationship between their members, and in particular
clan exogamy prevails with them, marriages between people of the same
clan, even though in different villages, being reprobated almost as
much as are marriages between people of the same village.

The Mafulu word for village is _emi_, but there are no words
signifying the idea of a community of villages and that of a group
of villages belonging to the same clan within that community. As
regards the latter there is the word _imbele_, but this word is used
to express the intimate social relationship existing between the
members of a clan, and not to express the idea of an actual group of
villages. Communities and villages have geographical names. The name
adopted for a community will probably be the name of some adjoining
river or ridge. That adopted for a village will probably be the name
of the exact crest or spot on which it is placed, the minuteness of
the geographical nomenclature here being remarkable. Clan-groups of
villages, forming part of a community, have, as such, no geographical
names, but a member of one such group will distinguish himself from
those of another group by saying that he is a man of----, giving the
name of the chief of the clan occupying the group.

I was assured that, when there are two or more villages of a clan with
a common chief and emone, they have originally been one village which
has split up, an event which undoubtedly does in fact take place;
while on the other hand the several villages of a clan, presumably
the outcome of a previous splitting-up of a single village, will
sometimes amalgamate together into one village, which thus becomes
the only village of the clan. But two villages of different clans
could never amalgamate in this way. The following are examples of
these village changes:--

Near to the Mafulu Mission station is a community called Sivu, which
includes seven villages occupied by three clans, as follows [57]:--


1. Voitele Belonging to a clan whose chief, Jaria, lives
at Amalala, where the clan _emone_ is.
2. Amalala
3. Kodo-Malabe
4. Motaligo
5. Malala Belonging to a clan whose chief, Gito-iola, lived
at Malala, where the clan _emone_ is. (He has
recently retired in favour of his eldest son,
Anum' Iva, who is the present chief, and also lives
there.)
6. Gelva
7. Seluku Being the only village of a clan whose chief, Baiva,
has recently died. His eldest son, who has succeeded
him, is an infant. There is no regency.


Also near the Mission station is a community called Alo, which includes
four villages occupied by two clans, as follows:--


1. Asida Belonging to a clan whose chief, Amo-Kau, lives
at Asida, where the _emone_ is.
2. Kotsi
3. Ingomaunda
4. Uvande Being the only village of a clan whose chief
is Iu-Baibe.


Referring to these villages, in the year 1899 the clan now occupying
the four villages Voitele, Amalala, Kodo-Malabe and Motaligo had only
a single village, Kaidiabe, the clan's chief being the above-mentioned
Jaria. Then there was a Government punitive expedition, following
the attack of the natives upon Monseigneur de Boismenu (the present
Bishop of the Mission of the Sacred Heart in British New Guinea) and
his friends, who were making their first exploration of the district,
in which expedition a number of natives, including the brother of
the chief, were killed. After that the village was abandoned, and
the three villages of Voitele, Amalala and Motaligo arose in its
place. Subsequently after a big feast, which was held at Amalala in
the year 1909, that village put out an offshoot, which is the present
village of Kodo-Malabe. Also in the year 1909 the village of Uvande
was represented by seven villages, all belonging to one clan under
the chieftainship of Iu-Baibe, the names of which were Ipolo, Olona,
Isisibei, Valamenga, Amada, Angasabe and Amambu; but after the feast
above mentioned the people of that clan all abandoned their villages,
and joined together in forming the present village of Uvande.

The chief, that is the true chief, of a clan has his house in one of
the villages of the clan, and if, as sometimes occurs, he has houses
in two or more of these villages, there is one village in which is
what is regarded as his usual residence, and this is the village in
which is the _emone_ of the clan.

As regards the relative predominance of the various clans of a
community and their respective chiefs in matters affecting the whole
community (_e.g.,_ the arranging and holding of a big feast), there
is no rule or system. The predominance will probably, unless there
be a great disparity in the actual size or importance of the clans,
and perhaps even to a certain extent notwithstanding such a disparity,
fall to the clan whose chief by his superior ability or courage or
force of character, or perhaps capacity for palavering, has succeeded
in securing for himself a predominating influence in the community.

The word _imbele_ and certain other words are used to designate the
closeness or otherwise of the connection between individuals. _Imbele_
signifies the close connection which exists between members of one
clan, and a man will say of another member of his clan that he is
his _imbele_. The word _bilage_ signifies a community connection,
which is recognised as being not so close as a clan connection;
and a man will say of another, who is outside his own clan, but is a
member of his own community, that he is his _bilage_. The expression
_a-gata_ signifies absence of any connection, and a man will refer
to a member of another community, Mafulu, Kuni, Ambo, or anything
else (there is no distinction between these in the use of the term)
as being _a-gata_, thereby meaning that he is an outsider.

This brings me to the question of the use by me of the term "clan" to
designate the intimate association above referred to. To begin with,
there is a considerable difference between the situation produced by
the clan system, if it may be regarded as such, of Mafulu and that of,
say, Mekeo, where one finds several clans occupying one village, and
where members of one clan may be scattered over several more or less
distant villages; though this latter difference might perhaps arise in
part from natural geographical causes, the flat lowlands of the Mekeo
people being highly favourable to inter-village communication over
their whole areas, and to the holding of their recognised and numerous
markets, whilst it may almost be assumed that such intercommunication
would be more restricted, at all events in days gone by, among the
Mafulu inhabitants of the mountains.

Then again in Mafulu there are no clan badges, nor are there any
realistic or conventional representations of, or designs which can
to my mind be possibly regarded as representing, or having had their
origin in the representation of, animals, birds, fishes, plants,
or anything else. As regards this, however, it may be mentioned
that the Mafulu people are very primitive and undeveloped, and have
not in their art any designs which could readily partake of this
imitative character, their artistic efforts never producing curves,
and indeed not going beyond geometric designs composed of straight
lines, rectangular and zig-zag patterns and spots.

Also I was unable to discover the faintest trace of any idea
which might be regarded as being totemistic, or having a totemistic
origin. In particular, although enquiry was made from ten independent
and trustworthy native sources, I could not find a trace of any system
of general clan taboo against the killing or the eating of any animal,
bird, fish, or plant. It is true that there are various temporary
food taboos associated with special conditions and events, and that
there are certain things the eating of which is regarded as permanently
taboo to certain individuals; but the former of these restrictions are
general and are not associated with particular clans or communities,
and the latter restrictions relate separately to the individuals only,
and apparently are based in each case on the fact that the food has
been found to disagree with him; though whether the restriction is
the result of mere common sense based upon individual experience,
or has in it an element of superstition as to something which may be
harmful to the individual concerned, is a point upon which I could
not get satisfactory explanation.

Again, still dealing with the question of totemism, I may say that
the community and village names (as already stated, there are no
clan names) do not appear to be referable to any possible totemistic
objects. There is no specific ancestor worship, in connection with
which I could endeavour to trace out an association between that
ancestor and a totemistic object, and there is no special reverence
paid to any animal or vegetable, except certain trees and creepers,
the fear of which is associated with spirits and ghosts generally,
and not with ghosts of individual persons, and except as regards
omen superstitions concerning flying foxes and fireflies, which are
general and universal among all these people, and except as regards
the possible imitative character of the Mafulu dancing, which, if
existent, is probably also universal.

Moreover, I was told that now, at any rate, the people regard their
_imbele_ or clan relationship as a social one, as well as one of
actual blood, a statement which is illustrated by the fact that,
if a member of one clan leaves his village to reside permanently in a
village of another clan, he will regard the members of the latter clan,
and will himself be regarded by them, as being _imbele_, although he
does not part with the continuing _imbele_ connection between himself
and the other members of his original clan.

On the other hand the association between members of a clan
is exceedingly close, so much so that a serious injury done by
an outsider to one member of a clan (_e.g._, his murder, or the
case of his wife eloping with a stranger and her family refusing to
compensate him for the price which he had paid for her on marriage)
is taken up by the entire clan, who will join the injured individual
in full force to inflict retribution; and, as already stated, the
members of a clan share in one common chief and one common _emone_,
intermarriage between them is regarded as wrong, and apparently each
group of villages occupied by a single clan has in origin been a single
village, and may well have a common descent. I think, therefore, that
I am justified in regarding these internal sections of a community
as clans.


Chiefs, Sub-Chiefs and Notables and Their Emone

At the head of each clan is the _amidi_, or chief of the clan. He is,
and is recognised as being, the only true chief.

He is the most important personage of his clan, and is treated
with the respect due to his office; but, though he takes a leading
part in all matters affecting the clan, he is not a person with any
administrative or judicial functions, and he has no power of punishment
or control over the members of the clan. In public ceremonial matters
of importance, however, he has functions which rest primarily upon him
alone, and he does, in fact, always perform these functions in his own
village; and on the occasion of a big feast (as to which see below),
he does so in whatever village of the clan that feast may be held.

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