Netting and networking in Napamogona

How language and culture are intertwined

Carola Emkow & Regina KnappPresentation at MPI-EVA inDecember

2012

This talk is about• our project, the documentation of Bena Bena, an endangered language in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

• about the Benabena people• their culture

– Culture of netting– Culture of networking

• their language– The representation of cultural concepts in language

• It‘s a ethno-linguistic joint venture

Background information: Papua New Guinea

- Population: ca 6 mio- 20 provinces- parlamentarian monarchy - 1975: Political Independence

- member of the Commonwealth

- 80% Christian religion- Social Organisation:

- patrilineal structures (Highlands),

- matrilineal structure (coast)- tribes, clans, lineages - Approx. 70% of the population live as subsistence farmers

- Increasing importance of cash crops

- Highest density of languages in the world

- About 800 languages- Papuan languages- Austronesian languages

- Papuan languages- Trans New Guinean phylum

- Gorokan Languages- Bena Bena

Bena, Eastern Highlands Province:

- District: Unggai-Bena- Bena Bena = Name of language

group and territory- ca 60 “Bena-tribes”- “tribe” = clan-alliances with

common residence - Warrior-tribes, conflicst

mainly because of land-issues

Napamogona:

- ca 1200 inhabitants, 5 Clans- 23 hamlets- Subsistence-farmers and

cultivation of “cash-crops” (mainly coffee)

- Increasing conflicts with neighbour groups regarding land ownership and usage

Background information: Benabena

About nets• Nets are fabrics made by means of a technique called netting.

• Nets constitute a regular pattern

• Netting is a technique different from knitting crochetting and weaving.

• The technique is used for making fishing nets or bags.

Netting techniques

Knotted netting

Knotless netting

Simple loop

Simple loop and single

twist

Simple loop and double

twist

Double loop

Knotless Netting• Knotless netting is widely used in Australia, and Melanesia (as well as South America)

• With this techniques string bags have been manufactured.

• Bilums are commonly made by using the double loop (hourglass technique, figure 8 loop)

Bilums• The result of this fairly complicated technique is a strong and dense but flexible textile fabric

• used for various purposes

Types of bilums• There are four types of bilums

– Two smaller ones (pocket bag and amulet bag)were carried around the neck to rest on the sternum. Traditionally, they were used most often by men to carry charms, tools or containers used to for dispensing time for the chewing of betel nut.

– The most common bilum is a general purpose bag carried over the shoulder, around the back to drape over the back or diagonally across the body

– The fourth class of bilum was worn across the back suspended from the forehead for women to carry heavy loads of firewood, garden produce and and processed sago from the bush or gardens.

Patterns

The bilum: gu‘i• The Bena Bena call the bilum

gu‘i‘bag‘

• It also means ‘ womb‘• However, the translation into ‘bag‘ does not exactly reflect the Bena Bena people‘s concept of the term. In fact, gu‘i is essentially considered to be part of the clothing:

gu katabag skirtclothes‘

gu‘i ehibe‘put in bag‘

gu‘i

faya gu talafafaya‘i gu talafafish net ?fish trap‘

• Moreover, gu‘i does certainly always mean ‚bag‘. The fishing net translates into

gu talafagu talafa? ?‘cape‘ (worn by men covering the body up to the heels)

Possessing a bilum• Is hence very important for practical reasons.

• And a very useful thing to havegu‘ni gu‘i - nibag-1Sg.Possmy bag‘

• Adding a possessive suffix to the posssessee is only one out of four strategies avilable in the language. Possession may be expressed by

independent free pronoun suffix

prefix

prefix & suffix

Marking possession in Bena Benagu‘ni

gu‘i - nibag-1Sg.Poss‘ my bag‘

nani gegisanani gegisa1Sg.Poss fence‘ my bag‘

foyani foya - nigarden-1Sg.Poss‘ my garden‘

yagani yaga - nipig-1Sg.Poss‘ my pig‘

nigiyakani- giyakaPOSS.1SG- footprint‘my footprints’nufuhenu- fuhePOSS.1SG- scar‘my scar’

nani lapenani lape’i1SG.POSS dish‘my dish’

nobunino-bu’i-ni1SG.IO eye1SG.POSS‘my eye’

latahani lataha - nihead-1Sg.Poss‘ my head‘

nani nogoya’anani nogoya-a1SG.POSS fluid,essence-RL‘my fluid, essence’

nemeha’nino-meha’a-ni1SG.IO spirit-1SG.POSS‘my spirit’nu-bu oka’a

nu- bu oka’aPoss.1Sg- eye hair-Rlmy eybrow’

Conceptual distinctions• A widespread distinction to be observed, in the languages of the world concerns what is commonly referred to as alienable versus inallienable possession.

• Superficially, the distinction is a straight-forward one. Items that cannot normally be separated from their owners are inalienable while or others are alienable. (Heine 1997: 85)

Conceptual distinctionsinalienably possessed- body parts- parts of plants- spatial relationsrelated to one‘s person- kinshipclose to one‘ body- clothes- houseresidue

Benabena concepts• The classical way of looking at adnominal possessive marking does not satisfactorily explain possessive marking in Bena Bena.– Kinship terms differ with respect to their possessive marking.

– Body parts differ with respect to their marking.

– Nouns may have a default possessive marking, but in a specific context may have another kind of marking.

Body partsPrefix and suffix

nobu’nino-bu’i-ni1SG.IO eye-1SG.POSS‘my eye’

Nigisanini-gisa-ni1Sg.IO-foot-1Sg.Poss‘my foot

Prefix onlylutahanilutaha-nihead-1Sg.Poss‘my head’

gupa-nigupa-nitummy-1Sg.Poss‘my tummy’

Suffix only

nabaga yogo‘ana-baga yogo‘a1Sg.IO-mouth ?-Rl‘my teeth’

nubu oka‘aNu-bu‘i oka‘-a1SG.IO-eyehair-RL‘my eyebrow’

Kinship termsPrefix and suffix

nogonanino-gona-ni 1SG.IO- little.brother-1SG.POSS‘my little brother’

Suffix only

afoa‘nifuafoa‘-ni-fufather-1Sg.Poss-?‘my father

Different marking in different contexts

suffix

Nani yaganimo foyamogunani yaga-ni-mo foya-mo-gu1Sg.Poss pig-1Sg.Poss-? garden-?-Loc

nohibeno-hibeBe-Prs.3Sg‘my pig is in the garden

independent free pronoun

Nani yagamo minigi ehibe.nani yaga-mo minigi ehibe1Sg.Poss pig-? is.lost‚My pig had gone lost.‘

Searching for parameters

• There must be other parameters determining which kind of possessive construction

– Other semantic ones– Other than semantic ones

Possessing a bilum or

not possessing a bilum

• It sounds plausible that things that are important ought not readily be given away.

• However, bilums have never been mere carriers for babies and charms and tools.

• Bilums represent detachable and attachable parts of person.

Benabena concept of person:

nubune nemeha‘ni• Persons are understood as partible and can thus be described as “dividual” rather than “individual” (Marylin Strathern 1988).

• a person consists of interacting parts:– nubune ‘body & body substances’ – nemeha’ni ‘spirit (inner advisor)’– nogoya’a ‘vital essence’– sikrafu’i ‘life force & breath’

Person and exchange• Benabena persons are active “agents” in exchange. The strategic managment of exchange relationships is crucial for the physical and spiritual wellbeing of the person

• Each exchange involves personal detachments and attachments of vital essence (nogoya’a) with the aim of nurturing and stengthening the exchange partners or weakening them by withdrawing nogoya’a (negative exchange, for example in certain magical practices)

Exchange• Benabena exchange grounds on the principle of reciprocity, which implies an alternating imbalance of giver and recipient. A gift is a future debt

• Exchange of gifts is always also an exchange of ‘nogoya’a’ or “vital essence”

• Exchange (ritual and non-ritual) aims at establishing long-term binding relationships between partible persons and/or groups

Exchange and reciprocity in Bena

Bena language• Exchange aims at extending existing networks– kinship relationships ascribed with birth

• Exchange aims at creating new networks– through life cycle rituals (e.g. marriage, adoption etc.)

– through institutional affiliation (religious and educational institutions, NGOs etc.)

• Ideally, exchange nurtures and strengthens social relationships.

Kinship in Benabena• Classificatory Kinship system• Clans: patrilineal organisation, common male ancestor, exogamous marriage, some clans are sibling-clans (marriage between them is taboo), clans often share a large common territory, clans consist of patrilineal lineages

Kinship II• Lineages: large family groups, share common residence, work on the same land, common land-ownership (boundaries marked by fences etc)

• Families: live together in households, share work and everydaylife, have their own pieces of land within the larger lineage and clan units

From nets to networks• Not only is it important to make nets but to create networks.

• And to some extent these networks are made through bilums.

• Nets display regular patterns. – The study of the pattern requires undoing the pattern. To undo the pattern the right string must be pulled.

– Nets do not have a deictic centre• Networks

– Each new connection appears as a new origin for a new branch. To disentangle a network more than just one string must be pulled.

– Networks have a deictic centre (person)