essay
On flying witches and flying canoes: the coding of male and female values
Kula : new perspectives on Massim exchange • Cambridge, U.k. • Published In 1983 • Pages: 171-200
By: Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Relying in large part on Annette Weiner's book entitled Women of Value, Men of Renown (1976), as both a point of reference and a point of departure (p. 172), Tambiah presents in the first part of this paper an analysis of the Trobriand cultural code concerning male and female attributes as recognized in the society. This section deals primarily with differential role playing by both sexes, with particular reference to brother-sister relationships and with interpersonal relations of other types. The second part of this work deals in some detail with Trobriand concepts related to the male sorcerer (BWAGA'U), the female witch (YOYOVA), flying witches (MULUKWAUSI), malignant spirits (TAURA'U), and the association between the flying witches and the flying canoes celebrated in Kula myths and canoe magic. Brief mention is also made in the text to canoe construction and Trobriand ideas about the land, sea, and sky.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Shipbuilding
- Gift giving
- Boats
- Status, role, and prestige
- Gender status
- Sorcery
- Mythology
- Magic
- Ethnometeorology
- Ethnogeography
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Trobriands
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1995
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Oceania
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Melanesia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Papua New Guinea
- NotesAdditional notes
- [by] S. J. Tambiah
- Bibliography will be found in Information Sources Listed in Other Works (113)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 82004142
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Trobriand Islanders