Przypisy

Again, in explaining value, I do not wish to trace its possible origins, but I try simply to show what are the actual and observable elements into which the natives' attitude towards the object valued can be analysed. [przypis redakcyjny]

As a matter of fact, this custom is not so prominent in the Trobnands as in other Massim districts and all over the Papuo-Melanesian world, cf. for instance Seligman, op. cit. p. 56 and Plate VI, Fig. 6. [przypis redakcyjny]

At a later date, I hope to work out certain historical hypotheses with regard to migrations and cultural strata in Eastern New Guinea. A considerable number of independent indices seem to corroborate certain simple hypotheses as to the stratification of the various cultural elements. [przypis redakcyjny]

Cf. Chapter II, Divisions III and IV, and some of the following Divisions of this Chapter. [przypis redakcyjny]

Compare Plate XXXIII, where the yam houses of a headman arc filled by his wife's brothers. [przypis redakcyjny]

Compare the linguistic analysis of the original text of this spell, given in Chapter XVIII. [przypis redakcyjny]

I am adducing these views not for any controversial purposes, but to justify and make clear why I stress certain general features of Trobriand Economic Sociology. My contentions might run the danger of appearing as gratuitous truisms if not thus justified. The opinion that primitive humanity and savages have no individual property is an old prejudice shared by many modern writers, especially in support of communistic theories, and the so-called materialistic view of history. The „communism of savages” is a phrase very often read, and needs no special quotation. The views of individual search for food and household economy are those of Karl Bűcher, and they have directly influenced all the best modern writings on Primitive Economics. Finally, the view that we have done with Primitive Economics if we have described the way in which the natives procure their food, is obviously a fundamental premise of all the naīve, evolutionary theories which construct the successive stages of economic development. This view is summarised in the following sentence : „…In many simple communities, the actual food quest, and operations immediately arising from it, occupy by far the greater part of the people's time and energy, leaving little opportunity for the satisfaction of any lesser needs”. This sentence, quoted out of „Notes and Queries on Anthropology”, p. 160, article on the Economics of the Social Group, represents what may be called the official view of contemporary Ethnology on the subject, and in perusing the rest of the article, it can be easily seen that all the manifold economic problems, with which we are dealing in this book, have been so far more or less neglected. [przypis redakcyjny]

Koyatabu — the mountain on the North shore of Fergusson, Kamsareta, the highest hill on Domdom, in the Amphletts; Koyava'u — the mountain opposite Dobu island, on the North shore of Dawson Straits; Gorebubu — the volcano on Dobu island. [przypis redakcyjny]

Not all the spells which I have obtained have been equally well translated and commented upon. This one, although very valuable, for it is one of the spells of the old chief Maniyuwa, and one which had been recited when his corpse was brought over from Dobu by his son Maradiana, was obtained early in my ethnographic career, and Gomaya, Maradiana's son, from whom I got it, is a bad commentator. Nor could I find any other competent informant later on, who could completely elucidate it for me. [przypis redakcyjny]

Professor Seligman has described the belief in similar beings on the North-East Coast of New Guinea. At Gelaria, inland of Bartle Bay, the flying witches can produce a double, or „sending”, which they call labuni. „Labuni exists within women, and can be commanded by any woman who has had children. … It was said that the labuni existed in, or was derived from, an organ called ipona, situated in the flank, and literally meaning egg or eggs”. op. cit., p. 640. The equivalence of beliefs here is evident. [przypis redakcyjny]

See Division II of Chapter V. [przypis redakcyjny]

Such reconstructions are legitimate for an Ethnographer, as well as for a historian. But it is a duty of the former as well as of the latter to show his sources as well as to explain how he has manipulated them. In one of the next chapters, Chapter XVIII, Divisions XIV-XVII, a sample of this methodological aspect of the work will be given, although the full elaboration of sources and methods must be postponed to another publication. [przypis redakcyjny]

The original has: „I tak być musi, choć się tak nie stanie/Przyjaźni mojéj”. The relation of the „friendship” to the rest of the stanza is equally unclear as in this my rendering of it. [przypis redakcyjny]

The prefix bo- has three different etymological derivations, each carrying its own shade of meaning. First, it may be the first part of the word bomala, in which case, its meaning will be „ritual” or „sacred”. Secondly, it may be derived from the word bu'a, areca-nut, a substance very often used and mentioned in magic, both because it is a narcotic, and a beautiful, vermilion dye. Thirdly, the prefix may be a derivation from butia, the sweet scented flower made into wreaths, in which case it would usually be bway, but sometimes might become bo-, and would carry the meaning of „festive”, „decorated.” To a native, who does not look upon a spell as an ethnological document, but as an instrument of magical power, the prefix probably conveys all three meanings at once, and the word ritual covers best all these three meanings. [przypis redakcyjny]

These natives have no idea of physiological fatherhood. See Chapter II, Division VI. [przypis redakcyjny]

These views had to be adduced at length, although touched upon already in Chapter II, Division IV, because they imply a serious error with regard to human nature in one of its most fundamental aspects. We can show up their fallacy on one example only, that of the Trobriand Society, but even this is enough to shatter their universal validity and show that the problem must be re-stated. The criticised views contain very general propositions, which, however, can be answered only empirically. And it is the duty of the field Ethnographer to answer and correct them. Because a statement is very general, it can none the less be a statement of empirical fact. General views must not be mixed up with hypothetical ones. The latter must be banished from field work; the former cannot receive too much attention. [przypis redakcyjny]

The word tabu, in the meaning of taboo prohibition is used in its verbal form in the language of the Trobriands, but not very often. Tho noun „prohibition,” „sacred thing,” is always bomala, used with suffixed personal pronouns. [przypis redakcyjny]

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 share of the wasi, the exchange is as a rule a great burden on them. It is one of the most conspicuous examples of the tenacity of native custom that in spite of all the temptation which pearling offers them and in spite of the great pressure exercised upon them by the white traders, the fishermen never try to evade a wasi, and when they have received the inaugurating gift, the first calm day is always given to fishing, and not to pearling. [przypis redakcyjny]

This stanza is originally in French: Quel sâle métier que la peinture./ Quel sâle, quel sâle métier./ On peint chaque geule sans murmure,/ Pour avoir un peu de la monnaie./ [przypis redakcyjny]