Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea (1922)

We return to the Sinaketan party as they leave the Amphletts. Parting gifts (talo’i) of clay pots and produce are brought to the canoes with “great nonchalance” (223). The party reaches Koyatabu, where “shy and timid” (223) inhabitants live in villages hidden behind trees. A famous story takes place in the district of Gabu in the northwest part of Koyatabu. A crew from Burakwa (on the island of Kayeula) went to explore Gabu and were fooled into thinking the Gabuans were going to trade with them and instead killed Chief Toraya and his crew. The “slain chief’s younger brother” (224) Tomakam went to kill the Koya of Gabu to avenge his brother’s death. This became a song with a commentary, told to Malinowski by To’uluwa, the chief of Omarakana, who “owns the song” (224).

Malinowski provides both the “almost literal translation” of the explanation of the song (224-25) as well as the song itself (226-27), noting that both include “characteristic gaps” and leaps in time. Next, Malinowski discusses the natives’ “mental attitude toward the mythological aspect of the Kula” (229). The details about scenery he includes are meant to “show how the sense of his actions appears actually to the native” (229).

Folklore can be divided into several types: libogwo, meaning “old talk” or tradition; kukwanebu, meaning fairy tales told for fun; wosi and vina vina, songs that are “chanted during play”; and megwa or yopa, which are magic spells (230). He then elaborates on libogwo, which includes lili’u, “deeply believed” and revered myths and stories that influence their behavior. The distinction between lili’u and other historical tales is vague, but every native knows which is which. Since the past is not conceived of as time “unrolling itself in successive stages” (231), there is no distinction between ancient myths and recent history. Instead, they distinguish only between events in their memory or in their father’s memory, with “no gradation of ‘long ago’ and ‘very long ago’” (231). Lili’u is that which happened long ago, past their grandfather’s time but without a clear time frame.

Magic gives myths their supernatural character and is “the link between mythical tradition and the present day” (233). Myth “crystallizes” into magical spells and rites and forms the “foundation” of a magical system, while magic reinforces and “bears testimony to the authenticity of myth” (233).

Myth is defined as a “narrative of events” that are considered supernatural, considered to have actually happened, and that could not happen today. Malinowski has grouped them into three. The oldest are myths concerning human origins, the sociology of clans, and the afterlife. One of these is that humans emerged fully formed with social divisions from underground. The second type are “kultur” myths, about a time when humanity was already established (e.g., stories about an ogre, cannibalism, and the origins of gardening). These include origins of specific institutions and forms of magic, which they believe emerged fully formed rather than undergoing an evolution through time. Third are myths featuring ordinary people with extraordinary magical powers. These often allude to the relation between love magic and Kula magic, such as one in which a hero named Tokosikuna defies many attempts to kill him after acquiring magic that makes his ugly body strong and powerful. This also includes the flying canoe myth, which is the basis for most canoe magic.

Malinowski records the best of three versions of the flying myth canoe. It describes Mokatuboda and his brother Toweyre’I, who were the u’ula (first possessors) of the ligogu and wayugo magic. They decided to go on a Kula expedition and make their canoes. They performed a rite with the ligogu, hoisting the sails, when the canoe suddenly started to fly. This myth includes many details about canoe construction and takes place in the same sociological setting as the present.

The myth of the Kula’s origin comes from Tewara. Kasabwaybwayreta, the hero, heard of a soulava in Wawela. He put into his canoe some unripe fruit and left with his children and grandchildren. When he arrived, the Wawelans would not accept their food in exchange for the soulava. So, with magic he ripened the fruit and took the form of a beautiful man. They then gave him the necklace, which he hid in his hair, and turned himself back into the old man he was. Later, his grandson looked through his hair for lice and saw it, and told his father, who became angry and jealous, surprised that they gave an old man the necklace. He set a trap for Kasabwaybwayreta, leaving him marooned. He descended into the ground and turned into a tauva’u because he was so bitter. His presence taints the village he is near and produces sorcerers and witches.

Malinowski discusses the influence of Kula myths on “native outlook” (251), claiming that the main social force of tribal life is “the inertia of custom” (251) and love of conformity. He challenges Kant’s categorical imperative, which is to judge one’s moral actions for the effect they would have if everyone did them. Malinowski instead posits that what is right is actually determined by “norms of general conduct” (251). An “important corollary” is that the “past is more important than the present” (252), in that past actions are more important in formulating norms than present actions.

We return to the Sinaketan fleet, and where three rocks form the origin of a myth of siblings migrating to Dobu, one of whom was a cannibal. One rock looks toward the jungle, associated with cannibals. The other looks to the sea. This is the reason Dobuans eat human flesh and Boyowans don’t. The rocks are the site of a ritual pokala of food, thrown at the rocks to bring luck.